Protesters broke into the construction site of a large Microsoft data centre on the edge of Amsterdam on Friday, during a demonstration against the project.

About 100 people made it onto the site, a Reuters witness said.

A spokesperson for the activist group Geef Tegengas told local broadcaster AT5 that about 500 people had entered the site, while hundreds more stayed outside.

Some of the protesters got in by breaking through a fence, and some climbed a construction crane. Riot police were sent to the site, near Sloterdijk in the city’s western port area, and made several arrests, AT5 reported.

Earlier in the morning, police had stopped the march on its way to the site. The mayor then banned the demonstration, and protesters tried to break through the police line, Dutch news agency ANP reported.

Geef Tegengas, which campaigns against fossil fuels, wants construction of the data centre to stop.…