Thousands of people participated in a climate protest on Sunday, forming human chains on many of the country’s beaches.

The protest was “for people who want to raise awareness about climate change but don’t want to hold a sign in Amsterdam or block a motorway”, organisers Climate Chain told local broadcaster NH.

“Demonstrations are often held in places they are not supposed to,” a spokesman said. “People aren’t always comfortable with that. This is a very visible at but not a mass accumulation of people. You’re standing next to another person and you’re not locked in a crowd,” he said.

Some 30,000 people turned up at the beaches of Texel, Schagen, Bergen, Castricum, Heemskerk, Beverwijk, Velsen, Bloemendaal and Zandvoort.

This was too few to form the longest human chain in the Netherlands, which had been the original intent. “We’re happy anyway,”the organisers told NH.