Demonstrators and police faced each other on Saturday.Image: dpa / Federico Gambarini
Germany
The clearing of Lützerath in the Rhenish lignite mining area, which the energy company RWE wants to excavate to extract the lignite underneath, continues on Sunday. According to the police, only a few of the activists who have holed up there are still in Lützerath.
On Saturday, many thousands of people demonstrated against the eviction and demolition in the neighboring town of Keyenberg. Among them was the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. On the fringes of the large demonstration, there were clashes between demonstrators and the police. According to police, people were injured on both sides.
You can find out what’s happening in Lützerath in our live ticker. Here you can read how the fourth day of the eviction went on Saturday.
8:00 a.m.: Injured in clashes on the sidelines of a demonstration near Lützerath
According to the police, people were injured on both sides in clashes between demonstrators and the police on the fringes of a large demonstration on Saturday. The exact number of injured and the circumstances were not initially known. The police spoke of 15,000 participants in the demonstration, the organizers estimated the number at 35,000.
Some of the demonstrators tried to go to Lützerath, some also tried to get into the opencast mining area. The police forcibly pushed them back. The police warned that it was life-threatening to walk to the edge of the mine because the ground had softened due to the rain and there was a risk of landslides. According to the police, individual demonstrators also attacked police vehicles and threw pyrotechnics in the direction of the officers. A spokesman said tires were punctured and wing mirrors kicked off.
According to the police, around 5,000 of the 15,000 who had traveled did not take part in the meeting. They immediately moved in the direction of the quarry edge and Lützerath and were therefore regarded as “disturbers”. Around 1,000 of them, mostly masked, put considerable pressure on police chains at the edge of the opencast mine and on the outskirts of Lützerath, the spokesman said. “As a result, tactical batons and pepper spray were used.” Water cannons were also used to prevent people from entering Lützerath.
The spokesman emphasized that sticks and water cannons were only used after the people had been threatened with coercion “countless times”.
Various videos from Saturday are widely shared on social media. The actions of the police are heavily criticized.
(With material from dpa and AFP)
It is the confrontation that has been looming for weeks: the police have started clearing the brown coal village of Lützerath. Climate activists occupied Lützerath for weeks, wanting to prevent lignite mining. But no chance: The police arrived on Wednesday morning with a massive contingent and broke through the first barricades. However, the activists do not give up so easily, there is a risk of escalation.
