Climate change protesters storm open-pit coal mine in Germany

German police spent much of the weekend trying to protect an opencast coal mine from climate change activists.

The officers started out attempting to prevent the protesters, many of them clad in white coveralls, from storming the 48-square-kilometer Garzweiler mine, which is in the western state of North-Rhine Westphalia. Then, after an estimated 900 of the activists broke through their cordons, police set about trying to remove them.

The BBC reported on Sunday that several protesters were resisting attempts to get them to leave.

The environmentalists wanted to highlight the damage caused to the world's ecosystem by fossil fuels.

Protester Sina Reisch told Deutsche Welle, Germany's international broadcaster, before the mine was swarmed: "Today, some of us will commit ourselves to storming the pit and stop the mining … We're going to use our bodies to stop it."

She said the huge amount of coal being produced in the Rhine district made it Europe's main source of environmentally damaging carbon dioxide emissions, which are a major cause of global warming.

"That's why we have decided to take things into our own hands," she said.

Another activist, who refused to share his name, added: "We really need to actively do something, because the climate damage that is happening now will be irreversible in 15 years. You have to run riot for some causes."

Many of those who stormed the mine were from a group called Ende Gelande, which means End of the Line, an organization that campaigns for climate protection and an end to open-cast mining. Most had been at a protest on Friday in the nearby German city of Aachen, in support of the Fridays for Future school strike movement launched by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg. That demonstration was attended by between 20,000 and 40,000 people.

Environmental issues have come to the fore in Germany in recent years and the Green Party has done well in elections.

Germany has set itself the target of going carbon-neutral by 2050 but the activists who stormed the Garzweiler mine want Berlin to set an even more ambitious target, according to Deutsche Welle.

The activists had been in a standoff with police and had then temporarily blocked a railway line used to transport coal before they swarmed into the mine itself.

The police warned the activists that the site was not safe and have complained that the demonstrators used unnecessary force when they broke through the police cordon. The demonstrators have also said too much force was used – by the police. And they have complained about the use of pepper spray.

The Garzweilermine produces lignite, or brown coal, and is run by energy giant RWE. It has been the scene of several protests in recent months in response to RWE's plans to chop down a nearby forest in order to enlarge the mine.

Protester Selma Schubert told the Evening Standard newspaper: "It's important to increase the pressure on the government. The government doesn't do enough against climate change."