Lützerath only regained calm in the early evening on Saturday after a day of anger and clashes.
Near the small village in western Germany, several thousand demonstrators from all over Europe, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and Frenchwoman Camille Etienne, had gathered during the day to protest against the project of extension of a gigantic open pit coal mine.
On the sidelines of the demonstration which gathered 15,000 people according to the police and 35,000 according to the organizers, groups of anti-coal activists sought to approach the precipice, a prohibited and dangerous zone, deplored the police.
“The police barriers were broken down.
To people in front of Lützerath: "Get out of this area immediately!"
“, had tweeted the police in the afternoon.
"Beaten by the police in the stomach and on the head", the lives of certain activists "in danger"
“The police had to use water cannons,” the police said, reporting “violence”.
In the afternoon, AFP journalists witnessed scuffles with the police, targeted by fireworks.
Media reported stone throwing.
On television images, a row of police in riot gear, helmets and equipped with shields, protected the edges of the pit by several tens of meters, facing a crowd of demonstrators.
The tense face-to-face with the police on the spectacular and dangerous site of this lignite mine continued until nightfall despite the rain, mud and wind blowing in a storm.
In the early evening, the site regained its calm, the demonstrators gradually leaving the place plunged into darkness.
The
Lützerath lebt collective!
reports dozens of wounded in the ranks of activists, in particular because of dog bites and water cannons.
At least 20 activists were taken to hospital, said Birte Schramm, a first aid worker with the village's Occupy movement.
She specifies that some of them, "beaten by the police in the stomach and on the head", suffered from injuries "could put their lives in danger".
A sensitive dossier for the coalition government
"There are injuries on both sides, but we don't yet know how many and how badly," said a police spokesman.
The security forces also protected access to the hamlet of Lützerath, closed by gates and occupied by several dozen activists.
The place has been being evacuated by the police since the middle of the week.
It was in support of this occupation that the demonstration was organized on Saturday and symbolically led by the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.
The Lützerath site, located in the Rhine basin, between Düsseldorf and Cologne, must disappear to allow the extension of the lignite mine operated by the German energy company RWE.
"It is shameful that the German government makes agreements and compromises with companies such as RWE", launched Greta Thunberg in black cap and jacket, from a platform.
“Lützerath coal must stay in the ground,” she told protesters, calling not to sacrifice the climate “for short-term growth and corporate greed.”
The evacuation operation in Lützerath is politically delicate for the coalition of Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, which governs with environmentalists, accused by activists of having betrayed their commitments.
Less than fifty activists are still there before the demonstration, according to a spokeswoman for their movement, while 470 activists were taken out of the hamlet occupied by the police.
Trees were felled, many huts built high up by the activists were emptied of their occupants, as were the buildings in which they had been living, entrenched for two years.
But two militants took refuge in an underground tunnel, suggesting a risky intervention to get them out.
World
Germany: Greta Thunberg demonstrates against the extension of a huge open-pit mine
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Coal
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Greta Thunberg
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