Jurors have watched videos showing Salman Rushdie being repeatedly stabbed on a stage in western New York while audience members gasped in horror at the attack that left the prized-winning novelist seriously wounded and blinded in one eye.

The author says he felt like he was lying in "a lake of blood" after he was attacked on stage in New York state.

The trial of a man who allegedly stabbed renowned British-Indian author Sir Salman Rushdie multiple times in 2022, leaving him blind in one eye, began on Monday in upstate New York. Hadi Matar, a 27-year-old man from New Jersey, is facing charges of attempted murder and assault. He has pleaded not guilty.

Salman Rushdie spoke calmly and with occasional dry humor as he testified on Tuesday against the man accused of trying to murder him, the first time the two have been in the same place since the 2022 knife attack on the novelist onstage at a New York arts institute.

Hadi Matar is charged with attempted murder in the attack, which took place in 2022 as Mr. Rushdie was about to speak at an arts conference in western New York.

A prosecutor says Salman Rushdie was so stunned when a masked man started to stab him on a stage in western New York that the acclaimed author didn’t even try to fight back.

The man said once he realized it wasn't a prank he tried to stop the attack, and ended up with a gash over his eye.