The two activists, who had waited for days in an underground tunnel in the lignite mining town of Lützerath, accused the police of "destruction frenzy" when clearing the site. "We have mixed feelings about how much attention the media has given the tunnel," the "Lützerath is alive" initiative quoted the two activists as saying on Monday evening. "The questions we've been asked the most - how we're doing, what we were doing down there, how we built the tunnel - are completely irrelevant and totally miss the point." The two people, who call themselves "Pinky" and "Brain", left the tunnel on Monday afternoon.

The end of Lützerath was within reach five days after the start of the evacuation of the former village. According to the energy company RWE, which wants to dig coal there, these were the last activists on site, and the evacuation by the police was over. A spokesman for the "Lützerath is alive" initiative told the German Press Agency in the evening that the two activists wanted to remain anonymous, so their statement was published "in cooperation".

It states: "The tunnel in itself has no meaning, the more crucial question is why it was built and manned." A large corporation wanted to destroy an entire village with the support of politicians "in order to increase its profits by promoting the most inefficient fossil fuel". And: "We are shocked by the destructiveness with which the police have once again turned themselves into the henchmen of a large corporation."

RWE announcement Activists' tweet