Nuclear waste train nears destination after protests

A train carrying 123 tons of radioactive waste was nearing its destination today after thousands of protesters were physically removed from blocking the tracks, German police said.

Officers began dragging demonstrators away at 1.40am local time and said that, by 7am, all 3,000 had been removed.

The train began rolling about an hour later from the town of Dahlenburg, where it had been stopped by the blockade, to Dannenberg – a town about 20 miles (30km) away.

There the waste will be offloaded on to trucks, and driven the final stretch to a storage facility in the nearby town of Gorleben.

Police said that road was still blocked by some 1,600 protesters.

Activists claimed neither the waste containers nor the Gorleben site, a temporary storage facility, were safe.