File images of the Garzweiler open-cast mine run by energy giant RWE in western Germany, which covers 48 square kilometres (18 square miles) and supplies lignite, or brown coal, to power stations in the region. German police said on Monday that they expected a "difficult" and "dangerous" task when they begin to remove thousands of anti-coal activists near the open cut mine in two days. Luetzerath, a village in North Rhine-Westphalia state, was once home to around 100 people but has been abandoned over the years as uncertainty hung over its planned evacuation for the expansion of the neighbouring Garzweiler coal mine. FILE IMAGES