On the third day of the evacuation of Lützerath for lignite mining, the police want to pay attention to activists who have hidden themselves in dug tunnels on Friday. “We don’t know how stable these underground soil structures are and how the air supply is there,” says police chief Dirk Weinspach van Aken. The situation is accordingly dangerous. In general, he was pleased with the progress of the mission. The night passed quietly.
The climate activists withstood heavy rain, strong winds and temperatures below ten degrees. The police initially gave no further clarification. Numerous police officers were still on the scene. According to a police spokesperson, however, they only wanted to become active at night when activists had to be freed from potentially dangerous situations. The Technical Relief Agency also ended its mission that night without getting the activists out of the tunnel.
The occupiers of the site, which should make way for lignite mining, reported on social networks on Thursday about a tunnel and warned the police not to drive into the area with heavy equipment. Police confirmed that there are at least two tunnels. However, there are only activists in one. So far, the police have been unable to catch them. Special forces from RWE and the Federal Agency for Technical Assistance should now “take care of how the rescue can be carried out in an appropriate manner,” Weinspach said on WDR on Thursday evening.
The last inhabited house must be evacuated
“It will also be important to proceed very carefully and not take risks.” It is impossible to predict how much delay the evacuation of the site will cause as a result. “The evacuation of the above-ground structures has been largely completed,” he stressed. “We evacuated almost all the houses, except one. The meadow has been cleared, most of the tree houses have been cleared. There isn’t much left in that regard.” The police want to evacuate the last occupied house on Friday.
Houses in the village have not yet been demolished
On Thursday, countless wooden huts and barricades belonging to the activists were razed to the ground by excavators. During the evacuation, the squatters usually let themselves be carried away without much resistance. Some were almost in tears. Two symbolic houses of the former residents of Lützerath were also evacuated. There, fireworks flew towards the emergency services, a DPA reporter reports. One officer suffered minor injuries, according to police. However, the old houses in the village have not yet been demolished.
Treehouses fell with a bang
Even from the up to ten meter high treehouses, squatters could be brought down by rescuers without much resistance. Police officers then cut the ropes so that treehouses collapsed and broke into many pieces, as a dpa reporter reported.
Cast in concrete or chained
In the night of Friday, the evacuation initially continued in the dark. “Objects that have been tackled are still being processed,” said a police spokesman. Activists who had walled up or chained themselves were also released despite the darkness. “In such cases, we must provide assistance,” said the spokesman.
Coal should help to save gas in the energy crisis
RWE wants to exploit the lignite lying below the village of Lützerath, which has long since been abandoned by the inhabitants. The coal is needed to save gas for energy generation in Germany during the energy crisis, the group says. The activists deny this. In exchange for politicians under Lützerath paving the way for lignite mining, the coal phase-out in NRW was brought forward by eight years to 2030.
Source: Krone
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