Tear gas injured many protesters against the Stuttgart station

Stuttgart - Protests against the construction of a new railway hub in southern Germany's Stuttgart resulted in nearly 400 minor injuries yesterday after police responded to the crowd with tear gas, pepper spray, and water cannons. This was reported by the DPA agency. At night, tree felling was supposed to start in a local park due to the controversial Stuttgart 21 project. However, several activists chained themselves to the trees in the evening, which the police began to remove. Protests continue.
    The long-standing dispute over the Stuttgart 21 project reached a new intensity yesterday. Protesters occupied the Castle Park, where almost 300 trees are to be removed for the station.
    One of the paramedics, Christoph Hoffmann, told DPA that 320 people with eyes irritated by pepper spray were treated in a temporary first-aid camp in the afternoon. In addition to them, 40 to 50 demonstrators had other injuries, such as contusions, head injuries, or nosebleeds.
    As early as the morning, about a thousand local schoolchildren demonstrated in the park. Some of them occupied a police car with barricades. Police in black uniforms and mounted police intervened against the minors. The police also used tear gas against this demonstration, and water cannons were on standby. According to Hoffmann, 50 participants of the announced student demonstration were treated. "I consider it the greatest sham that this police concentration is taking place during a school demonstration," said transportation expert and opposition Green Werner Wölfle.
    Reports of the police intervention against the youth quickly spread, and many angry activists headed to the park. This reportedly triggered one of the largest police operations in the history of Baden-Württemberg. Among the roughly 600 police officers were reinforcements from Bavaria and Rhineland.
    The police closed off a large part of the park to allow tree felling to begin at night, but dozens of demonstrators blocked the advance of trucks carrying barriers. Already after noon, the police first deployed water cannons and defensive spray.
    Several activists chained themselves to tree trunks or climbed into their crowns in the evening. Special forces also intervened against them in the evening; due to people in the treetops, they deployed a crane and a lift. Police tried to rescue four activists from the chains.
    Thousands of people protested in the park that evening. Spokesperson for the protesters, Matthias von Herrmann, expected that resistance would strengthen throughout the evening. "The Castle Garden will be quite full tonight," said the spokesperson.
    The DPA agency, citing a police source, stated that demonstrators also committed violence against police officers. "Stones were flying through the air," said a policewoman. However, she did not specify whether any uniformed officers were injured.
    One of the largest construction projects in Europe, which is expected to cost seven billion euros (about 173 billion crowns) over nine years, involves the construction of 16 railway tunnels and 18 bridges, laying 60 kilometers of railway tracks, and especially the construction of an underground through station. Opponents of the project disagree primarily with the high construction costs, which will also negatively impact the environment in the city for the next several years.
    As early as the end of August, protesters blocked the construction site during the demolition of part of the historic railway building. The police had to end the blockade.
    The environmental organization Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND) wants to prevent the felling of trees and today filed a petition for a preliminary injunction in the administrative court in Stuttgart, which would suspend the work.
    Today's police intervention against the demonstrators will likely have consequences in the Bundestag as the opposition Left Party calls for a special meeting of the parliamentary internal affairs committee.