Eight police officers injured as hundreds of climate activists storm German mine to demand end to coal mining

Climate activists dressed in white paper overalls broke through a police line and stormed the Garzweiler lignite mine in western Germany on Saturday to protest against coal mining and demand action against climate change.

On videos published online by the organisers, dozens of demonstrators can be seen hooting and clapping as police command them to stay put.

Police from the nearby city of Aachen used pepper spray to try to stop the activists. On their Twitter feed, activists spoke of “police violence”. An initial count put eight police officers as injured.

Police would not confirm how many people had entered the mine. A spokeswoman for the activists estimated their numbers at 1,000.

Police said Saturday evening that there had been an attempt to free protesters who had been detained in the Jackerath part of the mine and called for demonstrators to remain “peaceful and cooperative”.

Police have meanwhile began clearing the rest of the Garzweiler mine of protesters as night began to fall.

Michael Mertens, head of the police union for North-Rhine Westphalia, accused the activists of “unbelievable carelessness”. The edge of the mine was dangerous because the ground was unstable and not easily visible. “You can plunge 40 metres,” he told dpa.

Mertens predicted a “long day” for police as the move by activists was not likely to be a one-time action. At the same time, he praised the peaceful march of Fridays for Future protesters.

Climate change could have devastating effect on world’s ancient monuments

The action was organised by the so-called “Ende Gelaende” group, which describes itself as a civil disobedience protest movement to limit global warming through fossil fuel phase-out.

Some 8,000 demonstrators began a march early Saturday from Keyenberg along the edge of the mine. That protest was peaceful, including students of the “Fridays for Future” protests against climate change, as well as families and older protesters.

But Ende Gelaende led a separate march of some 1,600 people and earlier in the day had promised to “stream through” the police line. Soon thereafter the line was broken at numerous points and police began reporting injuries.

“Our colleagues here were approached by the masses and partially injured,” Aachen police tweeted.

Four out of six production units of the mine, which is Germany's largest, were shut down for security reasons by the owner, energy giant RWE, according to a spokesman for the company.

“This is an intrusion into public utility infrastructure,” the RWE spokesman said, but added that the company did not expect to have to close any power plants for the time being.

Since late Friday, some 800 protesters have also been blocking train tracks in the region that usually serve as a coal transport route to the Neurath lignite-fired power plant. A separate train line in Hambach, also used for coal, was blocked on Sunday.

Activist spokeswoman Kathrin Henneberger estimated more than 6,000 of the group were active in the area. “We have blocked many points. With that we have sent a clear signal: Something to protect the climate needs to happen now.”

The Fridays for Future protest network is driven largely by schoolchildren and led by Sweden's Greta Thunberg. Her weekly protest outside parliament in Stockholm culminated in a May 24 global school strike that was staged in 131 countries.