As a spokesman for the Aachen police said, the gate valve was opened during the night when the pipe was closed, causing thousands of liters of water to flow into the opencast mine and undermine the embankment.
On Sunday afternoon, the organizers spoke of thousands who had gathered for the rally. Various groups such as Ende Gelände, Fridays for Future and Extinction Rebellion had joined forces to form the action alliance. They want to prevent the police from clearing the occupied village.
From Tuesday, an order from the Heinsberg district provided the authorities with the legal basis for this, but an urgent application before the Aachen administrative court failed. The village is to be excavated because the energy company RWE wants to expand the Garzweiler opencast mine and promote the coal lying beneath the site.
