The Austrian police terminated this afternoon a protest action by 20 supporters of the environmentalist organization Greenpeace who occupied the Vienna branch office of the German energy concern E.ON at 9:00 a.m. CET today.

The identity of 16 activists was checked, a police spokesman told CTK tonight, adding that nine people were detained. The E.ON branch's occupation was terminated at 3:45 p.m. CET with the police saying that the protesters violated the principles of the right to assembly and breached the peace. Besides displaying a poster reading "E.ON = electricity from Temelin" they also switched on a strong siren signalling atomic alarm. It is probable that just as during similar actions in the past, the environmentalists will be released after identification and prosecuted outside prison. They mostly face fines. The protesters demanded that the German concern, which also buys electricity in the Czech Republic, withdraw from all contracts with the country and prevent electricity imports from Temelin to Austria. According to Greenpeace E.ON is the major importer of Czech electricity. The imports totalled 15,000 gigawatthours last year, including more than 12,400 GWh from CEZ which operates Temelin. With import to Germany the Czech energy gets to the EU grid and can therefore also be used in Austria, Greenpeace says.