Climate activists ‘prepared to risk lives’ to stop German coalmine

Hundreds of protesters prepare to defy police at abandoned village of Lutzerath in North Rhine Westphalia

Hundreds of climate activists who have barricaded themselves in a protest camp on the site of an abandoned village in western Germany have said they are prepared to risk their lives to prevent it from being mined for coal.

Lutzerath in North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) has been emptied of its residents, who have all been relocated. An estimated 700 anti-coal protesters, who started occupying the deserted village and surroundings two and a half years ago, squatting in empty houses, outbuildings and farmland, are preparing for a showdown with police after eviction orders were issued by a local court that are valid from Tuesday. The number of protesters has grown in recent weeks as hundreds of activists from Germany and around the world join the protest.