Serbian security forces reportedly used a military-grade sonic weapon to end a huge peaceful anti-corruption rally last weekend.
Hundreds of thousands of people descended on Serbia’s capital Belgrade on Saturday to protest over the deaths of 15 people at a railway station canopy collapse on November 1.
Almost daily demonstrations that started in response to the tragedy have shaken Mr Vucic’s decade-long firm grip on power, with many blaming the crash on rampant government corruption.
Footage from the rally shows people standing during a 15-minute silence for the rail station victims when a sudden piercing sound triggers panic and a brief stampede. Protesters were seen quickly clearing the road and running to the sidewalks.
An Associated Press photographer at the scene said people started scrambling for cover, leaving the middle of the street almost empty as they fell over each other.
Those exposed to the weapon experience sharp ear pain, disorientation and panic, security experts say. Prolonged exposure can cause eardrum ruptures and irreversible hearing damage.
Many who say they were in the epicentre of the alleged attack complained on social media about strong headache, nausea and disorientation.
Some security experts have alleged that a US-made long range acoustic device (LRAD) – a specialised sound-emitting tool capable of delivering high-frequency sound waves over significant distances – was used at the protest.
Footage from the rally shows people standing during a 15-minute silence for the rail station victims when a sudden piercing sound triggers panic and a brief stampede
People were seen quickly clearing the road and running to the sidewalks. An Associated Press photographer at the scene said people started scrambling for cover, leaving the middle of the street almost empty as they fell over each other
This aerial photograph shows protesters holding up their mobile phones to light up the night sky in memory of those who died in the Novi Sad roof disaster, as they take part in one of the largest anti-corruption demonstrations, in Belgrade on March 15, 2025
Their claims cannot be independently verified.
The noise that caused people to disperse sounded like a ‘plane was landing from the direction of the presidency building’, one protester, Dusan Simin, was quoted as saying by the Telegraph.
‘We couldn’t run away from it, we didn’t know what to do. People must have instinctively thought something was coming down the street, so they started running to the side and we all fell over each other,’ he added.
Serbian rights groups and opposition officials allege that such a prohibited sonic weapon that emits a targeted beam to temporarily incapacitate people was used on crowds at the protest on Saturday.
They said they will file charges with international and domestic courts against those who ordered the alleged attack.
Serbia’s authoritarian and pro-Russian President Aleksandar Vucic again on Monday denied that the crowd-control device was deployed, calling it a ‘wicked lie’ aimed at ‘destroying Serbia’.
He said he will soon invite the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and also Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) to investigate the claims.
‘It is important for history to see how they lied,’ he said, referring to those who claim the sonic weapon was used.
Thousands of protesters hold up their mobile phones to light up the night sky in memory of those who died in the Novi Sad roof disaster while marching into Belgrade on March 15, 2025 in Belgrade, Serbia
Riot police officers set up positions during the student-led rally in Belgrade, Serbia, 15 March 2025
Protesters burn flares as thousands of people from all over Serbia gather to take part in one of the largest anti-corruption demonstrations on March 15, 2025 in Belgrade, Serbia
Serbian officials have indirectly admitted that the police had about two years ago added the crowd control weapon to their arsenal, but insist that it was not used during Saturday’s rally.
In its online petition signed by more than half a million people, the opposition Move-Change movement asked international authorities for an independent investigation ‘into the use of a sound cannon on March 15 against peaceful protesters in Belgrade’.
The petition demands that the investigation ‘includes the medical, legal and technical aspects of its impact on health and human rights’.
Former Serbian president Boris Tadic also said he ‘will ask for international help to determine the truth about the events that caused grave violation of public safety and endangered health and lives of the Serbian citizens at the protest on Saturday’.
British NGO Earshot, which investigates the use of sonic weapons, told the Telegraph that it had received several videos of the incident at the rally that allegedly involved a sonic weapon.
‘Four of these videos contain a sound consistent with the noise produced by a vortex ring gun or vortex cannon,’ the NGO told the newspaper.
‘As this weapon pushes gas out of its cylinder at speeds of 185mph, its expulsion produces a howling noise which has been compared to a jet engine.’
Mr Vucic, who says that the university students-led protests are part of a Western ploy to topple him from power, has warned that all those who spread disinformation will be held accountable in courts.