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It started right on time for sunrise: around half past eight in the morning, police officers stormed the village of Lützerath.
From several different sides they penetrated into the place occupied by activists in the Rhenish lignite mining area, advancing with several hundreds.
The officers then surrounded Lützerath, according to the police.
Lukas Eberle, DER SPIEGEL:
»It was surprising that the police made progress relatively quickly.
They are now everywhere in Lützerath.
The activists had to withdraw relatively quickly and have now stepped up.
Many are in the tree houses, but others are still in the buildings that are currently being occupied.
And right now the situation is pretty static.
The police are now waiting, they have repeatedly called on the activists to leave the village voluntarily.
A few complied and have now been led out by the police.
But most of the activists are still here, holed up in the houses, in the tree houses.”
In Lützerath, a district of the town of Erkelenz in western North Rhine-Westphalia, there has long been a protest camp.
Climate activists want to prevent the energy company RWE from expanding its open-cast mine here and mining the coal lying beneath the site.
The village, abandoned by the previous inhabitants, has to be demolished for this.
The opencast mine is already directly adjacent to the site.
The evacuation of the protest camp had long been awaited with concerns about riots.
The fact that the activists have now retreated to the top is a problem for the security forces.
Lukas Eberle, DER SPIEGEL:
"If they want to go up into the tree houses, the police officers, they presumably need high-altitude intervention teams.
They would then have to move in with heavy equipment.
It all takes time because the access roads also have to be cleared.
And that's why it can really take a few days, probably even weeks, until the place is completely cleared."
This means that the evacuation has now begun.
But the battle for Lützerath is far from over.
