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Climate protesters dye Zurich river green
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This handout picture released by the Swiss police of the city of Zurich (Stadtpolizei Zurich) shows the Limmat river dyed green during a demonstration by Extinction Rebellion Zurich at midday in the center of the city on September 10, 2019. (HANDOUT/Stadtpolizei Zürich/AFP/File)
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limate activists on Tuesday turned the Limmat River in Zurich a bright fluorescent green in protest against what they said is the "impending collapse of the (global) ecosystem".
The Extinction Rebellion movement acknowledged on its Facebook page that it was responsible for using a "harmless" dye to change the color of the river winding through Switzerland's largest city.
A number of activists also jumped into the water and floated downstream like dead bodies.
The activists said that they wanted "to draw attention to the impending collapse of the ecosystem and toxic system we find ourselves in."
Read also: Climate change threatens half World Heritage sites' glaciers: Report
They said the substance used to dye the river was uranine, which they said has "about the toxicity of table salt".
Zurich police said they had begun receiving calls about the stunt at around noon and that they were analyzing the substance.
Extinction Rebellion describes itself as an international movement using non-violent civil disobedience "to achieve radical change in order to minimize the risk of human extinction and ecological collapse".
The organization is planning a number of actions across Switzerland over the next two weeks, including in Luzern, Lausanne and Geneva.
