GERMAN police have been blasted for a heavy-handed response as they used pepper spray in an operation to clear climate activists from one of the country’s biggest mines.

Campaigners stormed the Garzweiler lignite coalmine in western Germany on Saturday in a protest against fossil fuel use.

Organisers Ende Gelande declared: “We are unstoppable. Another world is possible” as they broke through police lines to enter the site.

A statement from protesters said: “This is not only about coal power. This is about changing a destructive system that is based on the quest for infinite economic growth and exploitation.

“We are fighting for a future in which people count more than profits.”

An estimated 5,000 activists joined a camp for climate protesters over the weekend and organised under the slogan “keep it in the ground.”

Climate change has become one of the major issues in German politics, according to recent surveys. The Green Party has recently polled level with the ruling Christian Democrats.

Authorities warned protesters to “not endanger [themselves]” inside the 18-square-mile mine area and indicated that they could face criminal charges of trespass among other offences.

Demonstrations started on Friday when around 40,000 students took to the streets of nearby Aachen as part of the global school strike movement launched by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg.

They warn that Germany’s commitment to become “carbon neutral by 2050” is not good enough. Activists are also frustrated over a lack of progress as the country moves to phase out coal use by 2038.

Activists had earlier blocked a train line used to transport coal from the open-pit mine before they entered the site.

Police warned that the mine was not safe and moved in to clear the protesters who resisted leaving.

Police were accused of unnecessarily aggressive behaviour, with activists claiming that many people were injured.

Climate activist Nike Malhaus said: “This year the climate justice movement is hitting a new peak. We are more determined, more diverse and more united than ever before.

“The climate crisis is already a reality, especially for people in the global South. We are bringing the age of fossil fuels to an end today.”

The group said that further action is planned as activists are set to block coalmines in western Germany in three waves.