Activists rappel from the bridge over the A4: SEK knocks them down!

Dresden – Environmental activists left Autobahn 4 in the morning. Dresden paralyzed.

“Traffic change instead of a climate crisis” asked the environmental activists who rappelled from a bridge over the A4 this Friday morning.

Around 8:15 am, at least five people put up a banner requesting a bridge over the A4 between the Dresden-West and -Altstadt junctions.

Then two of them rappelled down to the left and right of the banner. Three other climate protection activists stopped at the bridge.

Since the activists were hanging exactly in the middle of the bridge, police had to block the highway in both directions, officials said at the request of TAG24. In no time, rush hour traffic piled up for several kilometers.

“The traffic police created suitable diversion routes,” said a spokesman for the Dresden police department.

The activists wanted to pressure the Federal Ministry of Transport and the Hessian state government with action. It was a major concern of climate protection activists to call for an expansion stop on the A49 and an end to logging in the Dannenröder forest, they announced Friday morning. With this they wanted to achieve “an extensive and sustainable traffic change”.

At 10 am it was still unclear when the protest might end. “Special height rescue personnel were called in to bring the aborted activists back to the bridge or to lower them into the blocked lane,” the police spokesman told TAG24 at the time. “What exactly is possible can only be decided by the specialists on site.”

In addition to nine police patrol cars, the fire and rescue services were also on duty.

The activists didn’t just abseil down the A4 in Dresden. According to environmentalists, they were active throughout Germany.

There were further protests on the A4 in Jena, the A7 between the Schuby and Jagel junctions in Schleswig-Holstein, the A2 near Braunschweig, the A20 near Tribsees in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the A7 near Kassel and the A485 in Gießen.

In addition, it was in Hamburg, the Köhlbrand bridge blocked by around 40 supporters of the Extinction Rebellion environmental protection movement.

According to information from TAG24, the police helicopter has been circling the A4 for some time.

The SEK is also said to have moved in in the meantime and is preparing to remove the two hanged people.

While SEK’s emergency services were positioned on the bridge and fastened to the railing, a truck with an extendable lifting platform moved to the ground. Another officer from the special task force took a position in the basket of the tail lift.

At about five to one, the frame was extended and the first protester was carried on the truck’s basket into the freeway lane.

He was immediately greeted by officers on the ground and put into a patrol. Then I should have gone directly to look for him at a police station.

Meanwhile, the truck headed for the next freeway exit. There he drove down and the other way back to the A4. This was necessary because the other occupant was hanging over the rails in the opposite direction.

Two SEC officials temporarily secured the man with additional ropes and then rappelled down with him. Therefore, the pallet truck that arrived at that time was not used again.

This activist was also immediately searched and brought in for questioning.

During the total closure, there were traffic jams until the exit of the Dresden or Siebenlehn airport in the opposite direction. In addition, there were breakdowns on the A14 coming from Leipzig between Nossen-Nord and the Nossen triangle and on the A17 coming from Prague between Dresden-Gorbitz and the Dresden-West triangle.

Officers have already removed the banner from the bridge, removed debris from the road, and then released the highway again.