LUIZERAT, Germany (January 17) (Reuters) – Climate activist Greta Thunberg was arrested along with other activists on Tuesday during protests against the demolition of the coal-fired village of Luitzerat, but the entire group will be released later in the day, police said.
“There is no reason to detain them for days. It could take hours or they will go right away,” a spokesman for the regional police in Aachen said of the entire group of protesters.
Thunberg was detained while protesting at the open-air coal mine Garzweiler 2, 9 kilometers (5.6 mi) from Lützrath, where she sat with a group of protesters near the edge of the mine.
Village clearing in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia was agreed between RWE and the government in a deal that allowed the energy giant to demolish Luetzerath in return for a faster exit from coal and the saving of five villages originally slated for destruction.
Activists said Germany should not mine more lignite and should focus on expanding renewable energy instead.
Riot police backed by bulldozers removed the activists from buildings in the village leaving only a handful of them in trees and an underground tunnel by last weekend, but protesters including Thunberg remained at the site staging a sit-in until Tuesday.
A Reuters witness said Thunberg was seen sitting alone in a large police bus after his arrest.
[1/5] Police officers detain climate activist Greta Thunberg on the day of the protest against the expansion of Germany’s RWE’s Garzweiler open-cast vignette mine to Luetzerath, in Germany, January 17, 2023, which highlighted tensions over climate policy in Germany during the energy crisis. Photograph: Wolfgang Ratte/Reuters
“We will use force to bring you in to verify identity, so please cooperate,” a policeman told the group, according to Reuters footage.
“Greta Thunberg was part of a group of activists who rushed towards the ridge. However, we stopped her and carried her and this group out of the immediate danger area for identification,” a spokesman for Aachen police told Reuters, adding one of the activists jumped into the shaft.
Thunberg was carried away by three policemen and held by one arm farther from the edge of the mine where she had previously been sitting with the group.
She was then escorted back towards the police trucks.
The Swedish climate activist addressed some 6,000 protesters who marched towards Lützerath on Saturday, calling the mine’s expansion “a betrayal of current and future generations”.
“Germany is one of the world’s biggest polluters and must be held accountable,” she said.
(This story has been corrected to state that Thunberg was arrested but not arrested in the title and is correcting the city’s spelling)
(Cover) By Wolfgang Ratai and Riham El Koussa, Writing by Victoria Waldersi; Editing by Maria Sheehan and William Maclean
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