ERKELENZ (dpa-AFX) - Special forces of the Technical Relief Agency are to advance to activists entrenched in a tunnel under the lignite town of Lützerath before the end of Friday night. This was announced by a police spokesman on Thursday. One had no eye contact with the persons, but could speak with them.

A spokeswoman for the group "Lützerath lebt" said the people were at a depth of a good four meters. The activists had prepared for this and actively decided to take action, she said. "As soon as any heavy equipment moves here, as soon as demolition or cleanup work happens, the tunnel may be in danger of collapsing and their lives may be at risk," she said. The tunnel action is one of many forms of protest that climate activists are using to obstruct the clearance of Lützerath.

According to a police spokesman, there will be no further evictions of houses or tree houses during the night. According to the statement, the police will become active, however, should activists - as in the tunnel action - have to be freed from potentially dangerous positions.

Although many Lützerath defenders have already left voluntarily and police have partially evacuated houses and self-built settlements, activists continue to be on the site. "We will certainly hold the site here until the big demonstration on Saturday," said a spokeswoman for "Lützerath lebt." "But even if Lützerath, the village, goes away, we'll still have the networking and the educational work that we've done here and connected. We will move on and find new places of resistance."/gba/DP/men