LÜTZERATH, Germany, Jan 17 (Portal) – Climate activist Greta Thunberg was arrested along with other activists during protests against the demolition of the coal village of Lützerath on Tuesday, but the entire group will be released later in the day, police said.
“There’s no reason to keep her for days. It can take hours or they will leave immediately,” said a spokesman for the Aachen regional police, looking at the whole group of demonstrators.
Thunberg was arrested while protesting at the Garzweiler 2 opencast coal mine, some 9km from Lützerath, where she sat with a group of protesters on the edge of the mine.
The clearance of the North Rhine-Westphalian village was agreed between RWE and the government in a deal that allowed the energy giant to demolish Lutzerath in exchange for a faster coal phase-out and save five villages originally slated for demolition.
Activists are demanding that Germany should stop mining lignite and instead focus on the expansion of renewable energies.
Bulldozer-backed riot police were removing activists from buildings in the village until last weekend, few remaining in trees and an underground tunnel, but protesters, including Thunberg, stayed on site and staged a sit-in through Tuesday.
Thunberg was seen sitting alone in a large police bus after his arrest, a Portal witness said.
“We will use force to take you to the identity check, so please cooperate,” a police officer told the group, according to Portal footage.
“Greta Thunberg was part of a group of activists who ran towards the ledge. But she was then stopped by us and carried with this group out of the immediate danger area for identification,” a spokesman for the Aachen police told Portal, adding that an activist had jumped into the mine.
Thunberg was carried away by three police officers and held by one arm at a point farther from the edge of the mine where she had previously been sitting with the group.
She was then escorted back to police vans.
Addressing the roughly 6,000 protesters who marched towards Lutzerath on Saturday, the Swedish climate activist called the mine’s expansion a “betrayal of current and future generations”.
“Germany is one of the biggest polluters in the world and must be held accountable,” she said.
Reporting by Wolfgang Rattay and Riham Alcousaa, writing by Victoria Waldersee; Editing by Maria Sheahan, William Maclean
Our standards: The Thomson Portal Trust Principles.