INDEN/NEURATH (dpa-AFX) - Climate activists continued their protests against the mining of lignite and the demolition of Lützerath at several locations in North Rhine-Westphalia on Tuesday. Again, there were clashes with the police. Among other things, an excavator as well as rails and access roads were blocked.

Several hundred demonstrators gathered near the village of Lützerath, which had been cleared in the meantime and was scheduled for demolition. Among them was Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. When, according to police, people broke away from the demonstration and headed toward the Garzweiler open pit mine, police used batons, pepper spray and officers on horseback. Lützerath itself had been evacuated by the police in recent days and is sealed off. On self-painted banners, the demonstrators demanded: "Lützi remains!".

According to the energy company RWE, one person got into the open-cast lignite mine after the demonstration. "That is of course grossly reckless what he is doing there," said an RWE spokesman.

A bucket wheel excavator was occupied at the Inden open pit lignite mine, which then had to temporarily stop work. The Aachen police spoke 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, said a police spokesman.

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, the police spokesman reported. "There is no coal train here today. We stand in the way of destruction with our bodies," the "Ende Gelände" alliance tweeted.

Activists from the group Extinction Rebellion stuck themselves to the NRW Interior Ministry in Düsseldorf, later leaving voluntarily or being removed by police. Around 150 demonstrators also gathered at the state parliament, then moved in front of the NRW Ministry of Economics.

Activists also temporarily occupied two access roads to the Garzweiler open pit mine. In Cologne, climate activists got stuck on a road, bringing rush-hour traffic to a massive standstill.

Police forces had prepared for spontaneous, decentralized actions in many places on Tuesday. The action alliance "Lützerath Unräumbar", which also includes groups from Fridays For Future and Letzte Generation, had called for a joint day of action./uho/DP/stw