Seven young activists protesting climate change climbed into Rome’s Trevi Fountain on Sunday and poured diluted charcoal into the water to blacken it, News.ro reported, citing Reuters.

Protesters from the Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) group held placards reading “We will not pay for fossil fuels” and chanted “our country is dying”.

Uniformed police entered the water to retrieve the activists, with many tourists filming the stunt and some onlookers shouting abuse at the protesters, the video showed.

In a statement, Ultima Generazione called for an end to government subsidies for fossil fuels and linked the protests to deadly floods in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy in recent days.

The group said one in four homes in Italy is at risk of flooding.

Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri condemned the protest, the latest in a series of actions against works of art in Italy.

“Enough with these absurd attacks on our artistic heritage,” he wrote on Twitter.

It is a tradition for visitors to throw coins into the famous 18th-century Trevi Fountain to ensure that they will one day return to Rome.