Protests over a coal mine in western Germany only seem to be escalating. On Tuesday, police carried Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and other protesters away from the edge of the open coal pit mine, where they were demonstrating against the ongoing destruction of a village to make way for the mine's expansion, per the AP. Thunberg was among hundreds of people who resumed anti-mining protests at multiple locations in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, a day after the last two climate activists holed up in a tunnel beneath the village of Luetzerath left the site. The teen was expected to be released relatively quickly, per Reuters.
- Elsewhere in western Germany, dozens of climate activists glued themselves to a main street in Germany’s western city of Cologne and to a state government building in Duesseldorf.
- Near Rommerskirchen, a group of about 120 activists also occupied the coal railroad tracks to the Neurath power plant, according to police and energy company RWE.
- In addition, several people occupied a giant digger at the coal mine of Inden, while hundreds of other protesters joined a protest march near Luetzerath. The village itself was evacuated by the police in recent days and is sealed off.
Thunberg had traveled to western Germany to participate in weekend demonstrations against the expanded mine and also took part in Tuesday’s protest near Luetzerath. Police in nearby Aachen said a group of around 50 protesters got dangerously close to the rim of the mine and did not want to leave despite being asked to do so. Activists have cited the symbolic importance of Luetzerath for years, and thousands of people demonstrated Saturday against the razing of the village by RWE for the expansion of the Garzweiler coal mine. (More Greta Thunberg stories.)
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