Anti-atomic energy militants stopped a train carrying highly dangerous nuclear waste across Germany Wednesday by attaching themselves with concrete to the tracks, police confirmed.
The train had even been forced to reverse a distance "for technical reasons", police said, adding that the shipment would not be able to reach its destination of Gorleben in Lower Saxony before Thursday.
After a night of battles between activists determined to stop the train and police whose job it is to see it gets through, the anarchist "Robin Wood" group succeeded in bringing the shipment of reprocessed nuclear waste to a halt.
Four of its members fastened themselves to the tracks with steel and concrete, group spokeswoman Bettina Dannheim told AFP.
Police, who were preventing access to the scene, said they had worked in vain through the night with oxy-acetylene torches to remove the four. But "we need more time and heavy equipment," said a spokesman.
Late Tuesday members of the environmental movement Greenpeace had also blocked the line around Dahlenburg, between the towns of Dannenberg and Lueneburg.
Some people chained themselves to the tracks and a section of the rails was reportedly sawn out and removed.
Dannenberg is the end of the line where the six special containers or Castors are due to be transhipped onto road trailers for the final journey to Gorleben.
One policewoman was reported seriously hurt, and at least one police vehicle went up in flames after militants fired flare rockets.
Police did not expect the train to get moving again before midday Wednesday, and there was no immediate indication of when it would get to the Dannenberg transhipment centre -- DANNENBERG, Germany (AFP)
