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(ANSA-afp) - LÜTZERATH, 15 GEN - Around 70 police officers
have been injured in environmental protests at a German village
being razed to make way for a coal mine expansion, police said
on Sunday. In an operation that began on Wednesday, hundreds of
police have been removing activists from the doomed hamlet of
Luetzerath in western Germany. The site, which has become a
symbol of resistance to fossil fuels, attracted thousands of
protesters on Saturday, including Swedish climate activist Greta
Thunberg. Some of the protesters clashed with police. The
organisers reported that dozens had been injured. A spokesman on
Sunday said the tally of police injuries was down to difficult
conditions on the ground since Wednesday, as well as Saturday's
clashes. Criminal proceedings have been launched in around 150
cases, police said, including for resistance against police
officers, damage to property and breach of the peace. Activists
on Saturday had accused the police of using "massive batons,
pepper spray... water cannons, dogs and horses". At least 20
activists had been taken to hospital for treatment, said Birte
Schramm, a medic with the group. Some of them had been beaten on
the head and in the stomach by police, she said. Organisers said
that 35,000 protesters demonstrated on Saturday. Police put the
figure at 15,000. The situation on the ground was "very calm" on
Sunday, the police spokesman said. About a dozen activists were
still holed up in tree houses and at least two were hiding in an
underground tunnel, according to the police. (ANSA-afp).
