Lützerath eviction: German police drag climate protesters from coal village

Police in riot gear have started to drag climate activists away from an abandoned village in western Germany that is close to being destroyed by an expanding coal mine.

Protesters barricaded themselves in to stop the energy company operating the nearby Garzweiler mine from extending.

Some activists threw stones and pyrotechnics at police as they began to clear the camp in Lützerath.

Others climbed into treehouses to make the eviction more difficult.

The village is owned by energy firm RWE, and the last resident moved out over a year ago.

There were violent scuffles as police wearing riot gear stormed the site early on Wednesday.

They dragged some activists, many of whom are wearing scarves to mask their faces, away across the muddy ground.

The situation is now calmer, but many protesters remain. Some have formed human chains, others have taken to treehouses or the rooftops of the village.

Lützerath is on the verge of being swallowed up by the vast open coal mine on its doorstep – a huge mechanical digger stands just metres from the treeline.

But several hundred climate protesters are determined to stop the company from getting at the lignite that lies underneath it.

Some have been here for more than a year, squatting in the abandoned brick buildings.

When I visited the camp a few days ago, many activists were busy reinforcing barricades and preparing piles of bricks. Some were practising rope-climbing skills.

Germany says it needs lignite if it’s to meet its energy requirements, now that it can no longer rely on supplies from Russia.

But the protesters reject this argument. Dina Hamid tells the BBC: “The climate crisis is now, and we know that coal should have been stopped years ago.”

Lützerath is likely to be the last German village lost to a coal mine.

The government has pledged to bring forward the phase-out of coal in North Rhine-Westphalia, the state in which the mine lies, to 2030. The national target is 2038.

RWE and the regional ministers have agreed to limit the extension of the mine; plans to demolish and excavate five other villages have been scrapped.