MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Dozens out of up to 1,000 activists from across Europe were arrested on Saturday for occupying a power station owned by Sweden’s Vattenfall power company near the city of Cottbus. The protests were said to continue on Sunday.
"The over 130 pronounced provisional arrests on grounds to suspect serious breach of the peace by environmental activists were lifted and the people will be released from police custody gradually," Brandenburg police said in a statement.
It added that it would continue pursuing an investigation into the "serious breach of peace at the expense of Vattenfall."
Local media reported that the anti-coal protests in Cottbus followed similar acts of civil disobedience in the nearby town of Welzow, in which approximately 1,600 activists occupied train tracks, blocked diggers, stormed a pit and halted infrastructure.
