The man who molested a woman on a Beijing bus in July and then cut her throat when she tried to call the police has officially been arrested on the suspicion of attempted intentional homicide, district authorities said Thursday.

According to earlier reports, the victim, a woman in her mid-30s surnamed Gong, slapped the man after he groped her during her morning commute on July 17. The man then stabbed her repeatedly, puncturing her lung and severing a vein in her neck, before he was subdued by two passengers and the bus driver. Gong had lost consciousness by the time emergency services arrived, but eventually survived the attack.

The man was taken into custody following the incident and has now officially been arrested, according to a public account on messaging app WeChat that is affiliated with the Tongzhou District Party committee’s publicity department. Police suspect the 26-year-old man, surnamed Liu, of committing attempted intentional homicide for stabbing Gong’s neck and back with a fruit knife he had brought with him. “Police will continue to investigate the case and complete their body of evidence, and afterward hand the case over to procuratorate authorities for review and prosecution,” the report said.

However, both Thursday’s report and a previous police announcement published on the afternoon of July 17 didn’t explicitly state that Liu had sexually harassed Gong.

Yang Fan, one of the men who restrained Liu, recounted the incident to The Beijing News: “[Gong] said that this male passenger had touched her hips twice when he passed her, then she went over to him and slapped him in his face.” He added that she then took his photo and tried to call the police.

A video clip from the bus’s surveillance camera that was made public following the incident shows that Gong was standing in the front of the bus when Liu attacked her from behind.

According to the Tongzhou District report, Gong has been discharged from the hospital and is now recovering at home.

Editor: Kevin Schoenmakers.

(Header image: Passengers sit on a bus in Beijing, Sept. 13, 2008. Fan Jiashan/VCG)