A man injured alongside author Salman Rushdie in a knife attack on a New York lecture stage told jurors that he tried to stop the assault once he realized it wasn't a prank and was left with a gash above his 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.

It was the first time since the stabbing that the 77-year-old author came face-to-face with the man accused of trying to kill him.