Serbia is pushing back against allegations that security forces used what is being called a “sound cannon” to dispel protesters on Saturday in Belgrade.
During a massive Saturday protest, thousands of people were in the middle of a moment of silence to honor 15 people killed after a railway station canopy collapsed four months ago when video posted to X showed them suddenly fleeing.
“It sounded like a crazy rumbling, like a jet flying overhead. But it wasn’t deafeningly loud—more like a distant, threatening noise,” protester Miroslav Lukic said, according to German state-owned news outlet DW.
???????? Serbian police reportedly illegally used military-grade sound cannon against anti-government protesters in Belgrade while they were holding a 15-minute moment of silence.
The device, known as an LRAD sonic cannon, is an acoustic weapon that emits a targeted “beam” of sound at… pic.twitter.com/XeuyQFSdZ4
— kos_data (@kos_data) March 15, 2025
“It sounded like an airplane was landing, coming from the direction of the Presidential Palace,” Dusan Simin said.
“We couldn’t escape it; we didn’t know what to do,” Simin added. “You didn’t know if something would fall on your head or if you’d be hit from the side. We fell over one another. My wife hit her head on a pole. I was watching her but couldn’t help. We still feel uneasy.”
“I had the impression that huge, armored vehicles were approaching,” Bojana Milanovic told DW.
“I went to the doctor on Sunday because I felt weak and uneasy. Other people in the waiting room were saying they felt dizzy, had difficulty breathing and their pulses were racing. Many said they had a ringing in their ears and hearing problems,” Milanovic described.
“It felt like some invisible wave that split us to the left and right,” Jelena Ristanovic said. “The eye couldn’t see anything, but the body felt intense panic and disorientation.”
“When it happened, I instinctively pulled the hood of my jacket over my head,” she said. “My legs gave way for a while.”
But Serbian leaders rejected claims that what’s known as Long Range Acoustic Device was used on the demonstrators, according to the U.K.’s BBC.
Brigadier General Slavko Rakić told Serbian state-owned broadcaster RTS, “A sonic cannon uses a sound system that is amplified well above the sound system of humans and other living things,” per the BBC.
“What we saw is nothing like that,” the official added.
“The effect that is achieved is an amplified sound recording and it should be audible, but that is not present in the recordings,” Rakić said.
For more than four months, students have protested the railway collapse, equating it with deep-seated government corruption, according to the Associated Press.
Hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets of Belgrade in protest against Serbia’s president and government pic.twitter.com/gdwD1Pjktq
— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) March 15, 2025
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he wants his government to investigate allegations “that sonic cannons were used during the protests.”
“I am asking … the ministry of justice and the prosecutor’s office to react, either to prosecute those who used it, and we know they didn’t but let’s check,” Vucic said. “Let there be a proceeding but then they should also prosecute those who went public with such a notorious lie.”
An online petition posted by the opposition Move-Change movement, which has been signed by over half a million people, wants the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to investigate the allegations, according to CNN.
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