Overview

• Police say 21-year-old American John Rudat was stabbed after intervening when two men harassed women on a Dresden tram, leaving him with severe facial injuries that required surgery.
• Prosecutors had released a 21-year-old Syrian earlier, saying there were insufficient grounds to link him to the knife attack and that the stabbing could not be attributed to him.
• Dresden police now report that further investigative findings led to the Syrian’s provisional arrest on strong suspicion of involvement in the stabbing.
• Officers had previously said a second suspect fled the scene, and authorities reported they were searching for that individual.
• The U.S. Embassy in Berlin condemned the assault and urged swift justice, while Rudat recovers in Germany as a family fundraiser draws substantial support; his social-media claims about the suspect’s background have not been independently verified.