German police Wednesday said they detained hundreds of anti-nuclear protestors who tried to block the departure of a cross-country shipment of nuclear waste.
The activists tried to get in the way of an 80-metre (260-foot), five-carriage train carrying some 60 tonnes of nuclear as it set off from the western city of Karlsruhe to Lubmin, the main facility in eastern Germany.
Police said the protest was peaceful and around 350 were detained.
The train was expected to arrive on Thursday after a 900-kilometre (560-mile) trip.
On Saturday, thousands of anti-nuclear protestors demonstrated in German cities against the practice of transporting nuclear waste around the country.
The shipments regularly attract protests, and campaigners have been fired up recently by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to prolong the life of Germany’s 17 nuclear power plants.
In November, protestors repeatedly clashed with police as they tried to block a train carrying nuclear waste from France to Germany, which eventually reached a storage site at Gorleben after a 67-hour journey.
