DÜSSELDORF (dpa-AFX) - The most serious injury during Saturday's anti-coal demonstration near Lützerath was a concussion, according to NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU). There had been 14 transports to hospitals during the protests, Reul told the Interior Committee of the state parliament in Düsseldorf on Thursday. Five of these transports had involved police officers, the rest had been demonstrators. Most of the injuries were foot and leg injuries, arm and hand injuries and lacerations, he said.

Activists had reported over the weekend that there had also been life-threatening injuries. The police had contradicted this claim.

Lützerath, which belongs to Erkelenz west of Cologne, had been cleared in a large-scale police operation lasting several days against the resistance of hundreds of climate activists. The energy company RWE wants to mine lignite there.

Reul went on to say that it had also been reported that disruptors had deliberately reached for police officers' firearms. "In some cases, it has been possible to loosen one of the safeties on the holster already. I don't even want to rule out and imagine what could have happened there."/cd/DP/stw