According to the police, stones and pyrotechnics were thrown in the direction of the emergency services when the lignite town of Lützerath was cleared.

Molotov cocktails were also used.

"Stop throwing Molotov cocktails immediately.

Behave peacefully and non-violently!” the police wrote on Twitter.

The police had previously asked the climate activists to leave the occupied lignite town of Lützerath and started to fence off the place.

"You can now leave the area here without further consequences for you," said a police loudspeaker announcement on Wednesday morning.

"Due to the corresponding general decree of the Heinsberg district of December 20th, 2022, you are prohibited from staying and entering the area specified therein in and around the location of Lützerath." The police are asking everyone who is there to leave the area.

When the police began to evacuate, scuffles broke out.

Sirens and alarm bells had previously been heard in the occupied area.

Some activists climbed onto tall monopods and tripods - which are trunks tied together with platforms.

They were erected in the past few days to make it as difficult as possible for the police to get to the activists.

The energy company RWE announced that the first thing to do would be to build a one-and-a-half kilometer fence around the town.

"It marks the company's own construction site, where the remaining buildings, ancillary facilities, roads and canals of the former settlement will be dismantled over the next few weeks.

In addition, trees and bushes will be removed,” wrote the group.

"The company regrets that the upcoming dismantling can only take place with extensive police protection and that opponents of the opencast mine are calling for illegal disruptive actions and criminal offenses."

RWE argued that the coal lying beneath Lützerath is needed to save gas for power generation in Germany during the energy crisis.

The activists deny that. According to Aachen police chief Dirk Weinspach, the forthcoming evacuation of the protest village is one of the most challenging operations in recent years.

The mission should last “up to four weeks”, he said on Tuesday evening in Erkelenz, but one hopes “that it won’t take quite that long”.

The police receive support from all over Germany.

Activists have erected about 25 tree houses, some at great heights.

Lützerath is a district of the 43,000-inhabitant town of Erkelenz in western North Rhine-Westphalia.

The hamlet, located in the middle of fields, is now located directly on the edge of the Garzweiler lignite opencast mine.

The coal underneath is to be mined to generate electricity.

Reul worried about emergency services

North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) was concerned about the safety of the emergency services in advance.

“We have a certain proportion of violent activists in Lützerath.

Their number is currently fluctuating every day," said Reul of the "Rheinische Post".

"Therefore, such an operation is always dangerous for the police, and I'm also constantly concerned about the safety of our officers." However, the emergency services are well trained and educated.

The police are well prepared in terms of logistics and personnel.

He explained: "We don't know what the police officers can expect in the houses in Lützerath.

Are there traps or other barricades that we don't see from the outside?

We also don't know how many people will stand in the way of the emergency services." Reul added: "Caution is the order of the day these days."

The economics ministries led by the Greens in the federal government and in North Rhine-Westphalia have agreed with the energy company RWE to phase out coal by 2030.

In addition, five already largely empty villages at the Garzweiler opencast mine in the vicinity of Lützerath are to be preserved.

The small town of Lützerath on the edge of the opencast mine can be excavated.

The premises and houses have long belonged to RWE.

The legal disputes have finally been resolved.

Due to the current energy crisis, power generation from lignite for the European power grid has recently been expanded again.

In the Rhineland, there are two other lignite mines in Hambach and Inden