Thousands of German anti-nuclear protesters mobilised Friday against a train carrying radioactive nuclear waste from France that has already sparked violent opposition. The train with 11 wagons of reprocessed German nuclear waste crossed the Franco-German border early on Friday, stopping for more than five hours at the small German town of Neunkirchen to change engines. Protests had been "peaceful", said authorities.
Leaving Neunkirchen just after 4:00 pm, the train ground to a halt 100 kilometres further on at the town of Hassloch where protesters blocked the line. But police moved in to clear the tracks and the train continued its journey to its destination in the storage site in Gorleben, north-eastern Germany. But Jochen Stay, a spokesman for the anti-nuclear group Ausgestrahlt (Irradiated), told NTV public television that further attempts would likely be made to block the train as it neared its destination in Gorleben, north-eastern Germany.
Speaking in Dannenberg, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Gorleben, where the waste will be stored, he said: "There will of course be action taken to block it when it approaches. People will block the tracks and the roads." "But we do not want this to escalate. We want the police to act sensibly and appropriately with people," added Stay.
Television pictures showed activists removing ballast stones from under the tracks in a bid to slow the train's progress. "It's not about putting the convoy in danger, it's about slowing it down for as long as possible or, even better, stopping it altogether," said Hanna Spiegel from activist group "Castor Schottern".
Late Thursday, police had deployed water cannon and tear gas against a few hundred protesters who tried to block the road near Gorleben. There were a handful of arrests and light injuries on both sides. But the police methods angered the protesters. "The police reacted in a completely disproportionate manner. We call on them to use other methods," said one demonstrator, Kerstin Rudek. There were also isolated outbreaks of violence on Friday.