Greenpeace enters restricted G8 sea zone

HEILIGENDAMM, Germany, June 7 (UPI) -- Greenpeace upped the pressure on the German strategy for Group of Eight security when the organization's boats succeeded in approaching the summit venue.

Two Greenpeace inflatable boats forced their way Thursday into the banned sea zone, but were chased and stopped by police boats near the International Media Center in Kuehlungsborn before they reached the summit venue in nearby Heiligendamm, on the Baltic Sea. Greenpeace activists wanted to hand a petition to G8 leaders demanding concrete action on climate change; they also had banners onboard that read "G8 -- Act Now!"

Holes have shown up in the German security concept over the past days; thousands of demonstrators are still blocking roads and staying close to the summit venue's security fence.

Officials have nevertheless tried to appease worries.

"If you have a 12-kilometer (7.5 miles) long security fence, you can't plaster every square meter with police," Erhardt Koerting, Berlin's interior minister and a senior security official of the government's Social Democratic Party, told German news channel n-tv. "This is one of the toughest missions that the German police have had in the past years, and I think one should be low-key when it comes to criticism."