Hundreds of climate activists stormed a massive open-pit coal mine in Germany on Saturday, entering a standoff with police inside the mine while thousands of others maintained separate blockades of the nation’s coal infrastructure as part of a week-long series of actions designed to end Europe’s dependency on fossil fuels.
Coordinated by the Ende Gelände alliance, the campaigners targeting the Garzweiler mine in the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia as they evaded security forces across roads and fields before reaching the pit and descending its banks.
“We are unstoppable,” the activists declared, “another world is possible!”
Watch:
“This is not only about coal power,” said Sina Reisch, spokeswoman of Ende Gelände, in a statement. “This is about changing a destructive system that is based on the quest for infinite economic growth and exploitation. We are fighting for a future in which people count more than profits.”
In photos:
This is what it looked like, as one group put it, when “a thousand heroes enter the #Garzweiler mine”:
The climate action group 350 Europe said the collective action gave them “chills” to witness:
As clashes began with secrurity forces, the activists declared on social media that they were not the source of the violence and called on the police to withdraw from the area: