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INDIA/NEURATH (dpa-AFX) - Coal opponents continued their protests at several locations in North Rhine-Westphalia on Tuesday after the evacuation of Lützerath. Near the town of Lützerath itself, there were new clashes between protesters and police officers, with officers using batons and pepper spray, a police spokesman said.

A bucket-wheel excavator was occupied at the Inden open-cast lignite mine, which then had to stop work. Aachen police spoke in the afternoon of 20 to 30 activists involved, a spokesman for the energy company RWE of 30 to 40. All had climbed voluntarily from the excavator in the end, a police spokesman said.

Near Rommerskirchen, a group of about 120 activists also occupied the coal railroad tracks to the Neurath power plant, according to police and RWE. Those who refused to leave the tracks were carried away, police reported. RWE filed criminal charges in both cases for trespassing and for dangerous interference with rail and rail traffic, according to police.

"There is no coal train running here today. We stand in the way of destruction with our bodies," the "Ende Gelände" alliance tweeted above a photo of activists in white full-body suits on railroad tracks. "Climate protection remains manual labor!"

Police forces were gearing up for several spontaneous, decentralized actions. The action alliance "Lützerath Unräumbar," which also includes groups from Fridays For Future and Letzte Generation, had previously called for a joint day of action on Tuesday./beg/DP/mis