German riot police used tear gas and water cannons Thursday to disperse thousands of protesters demonstrating against an expensive scheme to bury most of the city of Stuttgart's main-line railways underground. The demonstrators had occupied a city park that will be dug up to build tunnels. They object to 300 old trees being felled. Some chained themselves to fences, according to dpa. The protesters had last month failed to stop one wing of the city station from being ripped down to make room for excavations. Fritz Mielert, a spokesman for a protest group calling itself the Park Guardians, said 300 to 400 people - schoolchildren among them - suffered eye irritation from the tear gas and pepper spray used by the police. A police spokeswoman said stones had been thrown at officers. Matthias von Herrmann, another protest spokesman, said a girl suffered a concussion in the melee. He accused police of treating young people and adults indiscriminately. Peter Hauk, the caucus leader of the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the state parliament, in turn criticised the protesters for taking children to the demonstration. Police said 1,000 in the crowd were school pupils. "I find it irresponsible of fathers and mothers not only to have their children there, but to put them in the front row," Hauk said. Workmen began cutting down the trees as soon as the site was cleared of people. Railway company Deutsche Bahn, which is receiving federal and state grants to cover most of the cost, has budgeted 7 billion euros (9 billion dollars) for both the tunnelling project, code-named Stuttgart 21, and a new main line to the nearby city of Ulm. Opponents fear huge cost overruns as 23 kilometres of tunnels are driven under the city and the station is rebuilt below ground level. The conflict has become a national issue, with Chancellor Angela Merkel backing the project. Talks between the civic groups and the state government of Baden-Wuerttemberg collapsed this week.
