Admin I Friday, May 10, 2024

BERLIN – Activists tried to break into Tesla’s electric car factory in Germany just outside Berlin on Friday during a demonstration against a proposed plant expansion, according to police.

So far, the demonstrators had not succeeded in accessing the Tesla plant grounds, a police spokesman told dpa on Friday afternoon, but had managed to overcome the first fences on the property.

The police spokesman described the situation as “dynamic.”

One woman has been injured in the protests around the factory site so far, and three police officers have also been injured, he said.

According to the police, several arrests have been made.

The police had attempted to cordon off a wide area around the site, home of Tesla’s only production plant in Europe. Police closed several nearby highway exits were closed.

As part of the demonstration marches to the site, there was also a sit-in on a country road near the plant. Masked protesters also set off fireworks and are staging a sit-in at the nearby Neuhardenberg airfield.

The latest demonstrations against the Tesla plant in the Berlin suburb of Grünheide began on Wednesday.

Climate activists have been occupying a nearby forest in tree houses since late February to protest against plans to clear the publicly owned woods to make way for the plant’s expansion.

Authorities are taking legal action in an effort to remove the tree houses and evict the protesters from the forest.

Environmental advocates have also criticized the possible impact of an expanded Tesla plant on sensitive wetlands that are directly adjacent to the site.