Greta Thunberg news – live: Climate activist detained during protest in Germany

We’re pausing updates on the blog for this evening, thanks for following here.

You can read more in our report on today’s developments:

Good afternoon, we’re setting up this liveblog to keep you informed of the latest developments after police said Greta Thunberg had been detained at a protest in Germany.

Here is what the police have said about Greta Thunberg’s detention, while protesting the expansion of a coal mine in North Rhine-Westphalia and destruction of a nearby village.

“Greta Thunberg was part of a group of activists who rushed towards the ledge. However, she was then stopped and carried by us with this group out of the immediate danger area to establish their identity,” a spokesperson for Aachen police told Reuters, adding that one activist had jumped into the mine.

Footage showed a police officer telling the group: “We are going to use force to bring you to the identity check, so please cooperate.”

Here are images from the scene taken by photojournalist, showing Greta Thunberg being carried away by police officers and sitting alone on what is reportedly a large police bus:

This is not the Swedish activist’s first brush with German police in recent days.

Greta Thunberg was forcibly removed from the protest site at Luetzerath by police officers after they refused to comply with orders to vacate the area, local newspaper Bild reported.

Ms Thunberg left the coal mine site at 5.10pm local time and headed to the nearby village of Keyenberg. My colleague Stuti Mishra has more in this report:

Protests over the past two years have drawn thousands of people to the coal village of Luetzerath, which has become a flashpoint for tensions over Germany’s energy policies in the face of the climate and inflationary crises.

The government plans to demolish Lutzerath – as part of a “compromise” deal reached with energy giant RWE last year allowing it to destroy the abandoned village in return for ending coal use by 2030, rather than 2038.

The Green Party, which has power both locally and in the ruling national coalition, argues that the deal fulfills many of environmentalists’ demands and has saved five other villages from demolition.

But protesters have squatted in the village for two years, and violent clashes were reported at the village as police sought to clear it, with scores of people allegedly injured.

Greta Thunberg and her fellow detainees will be released later today, a spokesperson for Aachen Police has said.

“There is no reason to hold them for days. It might take hours or they will go immediately,” the spokesperson told Reuters.

On Saturday, Greta Thunberg addressed roughly 6,000 protesters who marched towards the village of Lutzerath, calling the expansion of the mine “shameful” and a “betrayal of present and future generations”.

“Germany is one of the biggest polluters in the world and needs to be held accountable,” she said, adding: “The most affected people are clear, the science is clear, we need to keep the carbon in the ground.

“When governments and corporations are acting like this, are actively destroying the environment, putting countless pf people at risk, the people step up.”

Greta Thunberg was among hundreds of people who resumed anti-mining protests at multiple locations in North Rhine-Westphalia today.

Elsewhere in western Germany, dozens of climate activists glued themselves to a main street in Germany’s western city of Cologne and to a state government building in Duesseldorf.

Near Rommerskirchen, a group of about 120 activists also occupied the coal railroad tracks to the Neurath power plant, according to police and energy company RWE. Those who refused to leave the tracks were carried away, dpa reported.

In addition, several people occupied a giant digger at the coal mine of Inden.