ERKELENZ (dpa-AFX) - The lignite mining town of Lützerath is surrounded by a new one-and-a-half-kilometer fence. The construction is almost finished, only the gates are still missing, an RWE group spokesman said Thursday morning in Lützerath, a district of Erkelenz. The gates should be hung in the course of the day. RWE had begun erecting the approximately two-meter-high double fence - that is, two fences side by side - on Wednesday to mark the village as a company site and create "a gapless enclosure."

The fence is intended to prevent unauthorized persons from entering the locality, the RWE spokesman said. As soon as police have declared individual areas cleared, excavators are to begin "orderly deconstruction" - demolition. "When that will be, we don't know," the spokesman said. "Safety for everyone involved is our absolute priority."

The clearance of Lützerath had begun on Wednesday morning and is to continue on Thursday. The energy company RWE wants to excavate the lignite lying under Lützerath - for this purpose, the hamlet on the territory of the city of Erkelenz is to be demolished. Climate activists have been living in empty houses in the hamlet for months. They want to hold out there to prevent the burning of the coal and avert damage to the climate./wdw/DP/mis