(CNN) -- A train carrying nuclear waste in Germany is back on the move Monday after thousands of protesters blocked the track by sitting on it.
Demonstrators have been angry about the storing of nuclear waste in Germany as well as an extension on the life of the nation's nuclear plants. Protests have turned violent in some areas.
"The train is now moving again in the direction of Dannenberg, on the stretch between Dahlenberg and Dannenberg," Nicole Ramrath of Lueneburg police said Monday.
Ramrath described the protests overnight as "peaceful." About 3,500 protesters sat on the tracks, and police asked each person individually whether they would like to move and whether they would then leave the site, she said.
The majority dispersed, but several hundred protesters had to be carried off the track and kept in an outdoor detention area to keep them from returning, Ramrath said.
The train left France on Friday, headed for Gorleben. It's the 11th such transport in the past three decades, but the shipment has provoked outrage in Germany after the government announced in September it would extend the life of the nation's 17 nuclear power plants by 12 years. They were due to be decommissioned in 2020.
After completing a 50-kilometer (31-mile) trip from Lueneburg to Dannenberg by rail, the shipment will be unloaded onto trucks and driven to the storage site at Gorleben, in north-central Germany about 209 kilometers (130 miles) northwest of Berlin.
On Monday, about 1,500 people were still sitting on the road at Gorleben waiting for the lorries to come. Several tractors along the route also tried to block the shipment.
CNN
