Nuclear waste train forced to retreat

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

The campaigners have blocked the rails and engaged in clashes with police which left dozens injured.

Riot police have sent reinforcements to the northern German town of Dannenberg about 12 miles from the waste dump after militants threw stones and fired flares at them.

Police have replied with water cannon and baton charges.

Clashes have died down, partly because bitter cold has forced the militants to retreat, police said.

Police have decided to have the train reverse a few miles to the next station for unspecified maintenance while trying to clear the track.

It is unclear when the train will arrive at Dannenberg, where the six waste containers are to be loaded onto flatbed trucks to complete the last leg of the 375-mile trip from a French reprocessing plant to Germany.

The train carrying 60 tons of nuclear waste was stuck for hours some 16 miles outside a railway depot in Dannenberg as police laboriously removed three protesters who had chained and cemented themselves to the rails. A fourth remains attached as dawn broke.

Police say five officers have been injured in the clashes, one seriously. Some 600 protesters were arrested and dozens injured. About 20,000 police have been in action in Germany's biggest security operation for years.