ERKELENZ (dpa-AFX) - The energy company RWE assumes that the demolition of the lignite site Lützerath will soon be completed. It is expected that the dismantling will take another eight to ten days, a company spokesman told the "Rheinische Post" (Monday edition). "In March or April, the open pit could then reach the former village and excavate it." Until the end of the dismantling, the police want to remain on site, he said.

Lützerath has been cordoned off by police for days and surrounded by a double fence. The buildings of the small settlement in the territory of the city of Erkelenz, west of Cologne, are currently being demolished to allow RWE to excavate the coal underneath. Climate activists had occupied the abandoned village.

On Sunday evening, police said they had cleared the village except for two activists in a tunnel. "There is contact with the people, but they refuse any rescue attempts," the RWE spokesman said. RWE was regularly charging a car battery used by the activists for the shaft's ventilation system, he said, and was piping in oxygen./vrb/DP/zb