Novelist Salman Rushdie was seriously wounded on Friday at a public event in western New York after a man rushed the stage and stabbed him multiple times in the neck and chest. Henry Reese, the cofounder of an organization that supports exiled and threatened writers, was also injured on stage, though less seriously.

Early Saturday, Rushdie was on a ventilator after undergoing surgery. The full extent of his injuries has not yet been publicly released, but his agent released a statement saying the writer’s condition was “not good.” A doctor who was on the scene of the attack described the wounds as “serious but recoverable.”

Investigators have not officially established a motive, but NBC News reported that the twenty-four-year-old suspect’s social media contained posts supportive of Iran’s military and intelligence services. Institutions affiliated with the Iranian government have long had a bounty on Rushdie, following a religious ruling by one of the country’s leaders calling for his death.