Germany: The operation to evacuate a village occupied by activists has been completed

The evacuation operation of Lucerat, the abandoned village in North Rhine-Westphalia, which had been occupied by activists trying to prevent the demolition of the buildings and the expansion of the coal mine in the area, was completed earlier. According to police, two activists remain hiding in underground tunnels, while Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was among the protesters removed by police today.

A spokesman for the RWE company, which controls the coal mine, said it was unknown how long it would take for the two activists to get out of the tunnels, but assured that the fire brigade was constantly checking the ventilation devices at the site.

Aachen police, which is in charge of the evacuation operation in the village, said today that around 300 people had been evacuated, while four incidents of resistance were recorded. More than 154 arrests have been made since the start of the operation and, according to the police, in the incidents that broke out on the sidelines of the demonstration yesterday, 70 police officers and nine activists were injured and more than 30 official vehicles were damaged. As the magazine Der Spiegel reports, about 1,000 hooded men tried to break through the barricades, with the police using water cannons and pepper spray. Activist organizations accused the police of “excessive use of force”.

Greta Thunberg was also in Lucerat yesterday, who likened the landscape around the village to Tolkien’s wild kingdom, “Mordor”, where “absolute evil” was found. The 20-year-old activist appeared again earlier today, taking part in an activist group action, and eventually sat on a wall at the edge of the mine. Police said that “for her own safety”, she was asked to leave the scene and when she did not comply, two officers took her away by handcuffing her.