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Dozens of protesters have been injured after clashing with police while trying to prevent a consignment of nuclear waste from being transported to a storage dump in Germany.
Officers in riot gear used batons, tear gas and pepper spray to disperse thousands of demonstrators as they tried to damage the rail track to halt the train carrying the nuclear material.
The confrontations near Dannenberg forced the delay of the shipment of 154 tonnes of nuclear waste by more than 10 hours, according to police.
The transport of the material - which was reprocessed at a plant in France before being returned to Germany for storage - has become a tense political issue.
Activists claim neither its containers nor its destination, in Gorleben in the north of the country, are safe.
Greenpeace says the site, in a disused salt mine, would be unsafe over the long term.
Around 17,000 police officers are involved in the security operation to make sure the train reaches its destination.
But violence erupted when 250 activists tried to damage the track near the waste dump to halt the train.
When police tried to stop them, the activists responded using flare guns and a chemical spray that caused eyes to tear up.
Police repeatedly tried to stop activists from removing gravel under the rail tracks.
Some officers were pushed and shoved from behind as they tried to carry activists away.
The helmet-clad police were filmed punching activists and hitting them with truncheons as small fires burned on the tracks and in the surrounding forests.
It is not known how many people were injured but local hospitals said they were treating a large number of demonstrators.
On Saturday more than 10,000 protestors have been taking part in a major rally and again blocked railway tracks and delayed the shipment.
More clashes are likely as Chancellor Angela Merkel's faces fierce opposition to her decision to extend the lifespan of the country's 17 nuclear power plants by 12 years.
Germany gets almost a quarter of its energy from nuclear power.
SKYNEWS
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