JK Rowling fears for her life

Joanne Rowling said she is working with police after receiving a potential threat from a Twitter user after the writer reacted to Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie being attacked in New York.

The 57-year-old Harry Potter writer shared screenshots of a message on Twitter from a user who wrote "don't worry, you're next" in response to her tweet that she felt "very sick" after hearing the news and hoped the writer would "be OK".

JK Rowling noted the Twitter support account in the post and said: "Is there any chance of any support?"

She later informed her followers of the situation, saying: "To everyone who sends support messages: thank you."

It is worth noting that Joanne Rowling is among the authors and celebrities who have expressed their disbelief after Sir Salman was stabbed on stage in New York state.

The 75-year-old British writer of Indian origin, whose writings prompted death threats from Iran in the 1980s, was due to deliver a lecture at the Chatokua Institute when the incident occurred, leaving him with an apparent stab wound to the neck.

He is on a ventilator and may lose an eye and suffered nerve damage in his arm and liver, according to the New York Times.

On Friday, New York State Police identified the suspect in the attack as a 24-year-old man from Fairview, New Jersey, who was taken into custody after the incident.

As the suspect was identified, people on social media speculated that the attack was linked to former Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, who had earlier issued a fatwa calling for his death.

The call was made after the publication of his book The Satanic Verses, which has been banned in Iran since 1988 because many Muslims consider it blasphemous.