Climate activists vow to defend village at risk from coal mine expansion

Climate activists sit on a monopod on the edge of the village of Luetzerath (David Young/dpa/AP)

Climate activists have pledged to defend a tiny village in western Germany from being bulldozed for the expansion of a nearby coal mine that has become a battleground between the government and environmental campaigners.

Hundreds of people are expected to take part in protest training and a subsequent demonstration in the hamlet of Luetzerath, which lies west of Cologne next to the vast Garzweiler coal mine.