According to the organizers, the rally, in support of opponents of the extension of an immense open lignite mine, brought together some 35,000 people, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.
MO12345LEMONDE with AFP
Incidents opposed, Saturday January 14, demonstrators of the climate cause and police during a vast rally of several thousand people in western Germany, in Lützerath (Rhinenania-du-Westphalie ). “The police barriers were broken. To people in front of Lützerath:” Get out of this area immediately! “” Tweeted the police, who also reported the intrusion of demonstrators on the mine site.
A little earlier, journalists from the France-Presse agency (AFP) attended scuffles between groups of demonstrators and the police, targeted by pyrotechnic vehicle fire. Media reported stones.
An AFP journalist found that a demonstrator had been injured in the head while ambulance sirens resounded at the scene of the demonstration, difficult to contain because they dispersed in small groups through the muddy fields Surrounding the mine.
in the presence of Greta Thunberg
According to the organizers, the demonstration, in the presence of Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, gathered some 35,000 people.
On television images, a row of police officers in rugged outfit, helmeted and equipped with shields, protected the edges of the mine pit – several tens of meters – while demonstrators approached. “Some people have entered the mine. Immediately get away from the danger zone!”, Tweeted the police again.
The police also protected access to the hamlet of Lützerath, closed by gates and occupied by several dozen activists, being evacuated by the police since January 11. It is in support of people who occupy this abandoned hamlet that the demonstration had been organized.
The Lützerath site, located in the Rhine basin, between Düsseldorf and Cologne, must disappear to allow the extension of an immense open lignite mine, one of the largest in Europe, operated by the ‘German energetician Rwe.