A train delivering waste from reprocessed nuclear fuel to a German storage site has been forced to retreat by protesters.

German police have dragged away hundreds of demonstrators trying to stop a train shipment of radioactive waste.

About 1,000 anti-nuclear protesters have occupied a stretch of the route to be taken by a hotly contested shipment of nuclear waste that is rumbling through Germany.

Protesters trying to obstruct a nuclear waste shipment have chained themselves to a rail bridge over a river in Germany.

A train loaded with some 60 tons of nuclear waste in six sealed containers was being protected by 15,000 German police today as determined and angry demonstrators made repeated attempts to halts its progress.