DOZENS of climate activists glued themselves to the road in Cologne city centre and to a state government building in Duesseldorf today to protest against the destruction of a village to make way for a coalmine expansion.

The protests came a day after the last two climate activists holed up in a tunnel beneath the village of Luetzerath, which has been abandoned by its residents, left the site.

Police and energy company RWE started evicting protesters from the hamlet on January 11, removing roadblocks, chopping down treehouses and bulldozing buildings.

Activists have cited the symbolic importance of Luetzerath for years, and thousands of people demonstrated on Saturday against the razing of the village by RWE for the expansion of the Garzweiler open pit.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who travelled to western Germany to participate in the demonstrations last weekend, also took part in a nearby protest.

Protesters clashed with police near the mine, and officers used batons and pepper spray, police told the German DPA news agency.