01/13/2023 04:08 (act. 01/13/2023 04:08)
The police operation in Lützerath continues ©APA/dpa
On the third day of the evacuation from Lützerath for lignite mining, police want to focus on activists who barricaded themselves in tunnels dug on Friday. “We don’t know how stable these underground ground structures are and how the air supply is there,” said Aachen police chief Dirk Weinspach. The situation is correspondingly dangerous. Overall, he was satisfied with the progress of the mission. The night passed silently.
Climate activists held out in heavy rain, strong winds and temperatures below ten degrees. The police initially did not clarify further. There were still several police officers at the scene. According to a police spokesman, however, they only wanted to become active at night when activists needed to be released from potentially dangerous situations. The Technical Relief Agency also ended its mission that night without getting the activists out of the tunnel.
The occupants of the site, which will give way to lignite mining, reported this Thursday on social media the existence of a tunnel and warned the police not to enter the area with heavy equipment. The police confirmed that there are at least two tunnels. However, there are only activists in one. So far the police have been unable to arrest them. Special forces from RWE and the Federal Technical Assistance Agency would now have to take care of “how the rescue can be carried out properly,” Weinspach said Thursday night at the WDR. “It will also be important to proceed very carefully and not take any risks.” It is not possible to predict the extent to which site cleanup may be delayed. “The clearance of the above-ground structures is practically complete”, he emphasized. “We’ve cleaned almost all the houses except one. The meadow has been cleared, most of the tree houses have been cleared. In that regard, not much is left.” The last occupied house will be vacated by the police on Friday.
On Thursday, several wooden huts and barricades belonging to the activists were flattened by bulldozers. During the evacuation, squatters generally let themselves be led without much resistance. Some were on the verge of tears. Two symbolic houses of the former residents of Lützerath were also vacated. There, fireworks flew towards the emergency services, as reported by a dpa reporter. One officer was slightly injured, police said. However, the old houses in the village have not yet been demolished.
Even from tree houses erected to a height of up to ten meters, trespassers could be knocked down by rescuers without much resistance. Officers then cut the ties so that the tree houses fell and broke into several pieces, as a dpa reporter reported.
During Friday night, the evacuation initially continued in the dark. “The objects that were boarded are still being processed,” a police spokesman said. Activists who cemented themselves or chained themselves were also released despite the darkness. “In those cases, we have to provide help,” the spokesperson said.
RWE wants to mine the lignite that lies beneath the village of Lützerath, which has long since been abandoned by villagers. Coal is needed to save gas for power generation in Germany during the energy crisis, the group argues. Activists deny it. In exchange for the fact that politicians paved the way for lignite mining under Lützerath, the phase out of coal in NRW was brought forward by eight years to 2030.