German police announced today that they arrested 120 environmental activists after clashes with law enforcement during demonstrations in the east of the country against the use of fossil fuels.
The conflict took place on Saturday when around 300 demonstrators tried to enter the Švarce Pumpe power plant, which belongs to the Swedish group "Vattenfall", in Lauzic, said the police spokesman.
A group of protesters attacked the central security, destroyed the fence and entered the yard where they threw firecrackers.
Two protesters were injured during the arrest and taken to hospital, the police said.
It was attended by more than 2.000 people, according to the organizers, and the protest was part of the international campaign "Let's break free" launched by non-governmental organizations, including Greenpeace and "350.org", demanding a drastic reduction in the use of fossil fuels.
A spokesman for the anti-nuclear and anti-coal coalition accused the police of instigating the violence, saying they only intervened when protesters were preparing to leave the plant's courtyard.
Since Friday, opponents of coal have blocked the mine that supplies the "Svarce Pumpe" thermal power plant. On Saturday, they managed to intercept some coal shipments, which forced the plant to reduce production.
Electric power in Germany, which will close all its nuclear power plants by 2022, is 42 percent dependent on coal.
The debate about closing coal-fired power plants, which is a major polluter, has been going on for the past year, and it has been heavily influenced by the fear of job losses.
Only a dozen such power plants have to be closed in the medium term.
As part of the global movement, hundreds of activists have been at two refineries in the northwest of the US for days, where they are demanding an end to the use of fossil fuels, and one group is blocking the railroad tracks leading to those facilities.
Similar demonstrations are being held near Los Angeles, Washington and in the federal state of New York.
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