London (AFP) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the "horrific" attack on British writer Salman Rushdie on Friday in the United States.

In a tweet, Johnson expressed his "horror at Salman Rushdie being stabbed while exercising his right that we must not stop defending him," referring to freedom of expression.

"I'm thinking of his family. We all hope he's OK," the prime minister added, hours after the writer of "The Satanic Verses" was stabbed in the neck before a lecture in New York state.

And the New York Police announced that Rushdie had been stabbed in the neck in an attack that targeted him before giving a lecture on Friday, noting that no information was available about his condition and confirming the arrest of the suspect.

The founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa to shed the blood of Salman Rushdi, born in India in 1947, because of his novel "The Satanic Verses" in 1989.