BERLIN, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Climate activists brought road traffic to a standstill in the German capital Berlin on Monday, causing widespread tailbacks that also blocked emergency vehicles.
More than 20 blockades by activists were disbanded, and over 40 people were taken into custody, Berlin police said via Twitter. Around 500 officers were deployed to handle the situation.
"We do not support such forms of protest," government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told the German press agency dpa, adding that he did not believe that "such massive disruptions of public order (...) serve the intended purpose."
The death of a female cyclist during an earlier climate protest sparked an outcry, since it was initially believed that the protest prevented rescue workers from being able to save the woman's life. However, an investigation revealed that it would not have been possible to arrive at the scene of the accident in time even without the blockade.
The traffic-stopping demonstrations are also not supported by all those within the climate protest movement. Fridays for Future (FFF), another environmental activist group with similar aims, has accused the protests' organizers of dividing society.
"The climate crisis needs solutions for society as a whole, and we can only find and fight for them together, not by turning people against each other in everyday life," a FFF spokesperson said recently. ■
