Serbia: Government denies using ‘sonic cannon’ at protests

For a few seconds, there was only pure panic, as chaos and fear surged through the crowd at a major anti-government protest in Serbia. What started as confusion has since spiralled into questions over whether an illegal sonic weapon was used to silence the demonstration.

A large crowd of protesters in Belgrade on Saturday evening were observing a 15-minute silence in honour of the 15 people killed when part of a railway station collapsed in Novi Sad in November.

Then, out of nowhere, a loud, jarring noise shattered the quiet.

The mood shifted in an instant. The crowd surged towards the pavement in panic. I was swept along with them. People scattered in all directions.

At first, many thought the noise was an emergency vehicle, after what had sounded like a car crash. But there were no sirens.

Then came the rumours. Claims emerged that a sonic weapon – a device capable of causing pain, dizziness, and hearing damage – had been deployed against the peaceful protesters.

Serbian officials have denied these reports, rejecting allegations that security forces deployed a military-grade Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) – also known as a “sonic cannon” – during the demonstration.

The Serbian army has stated that it neither possesses nor has ever used a sonic cannon.

In an interview with Serbia’s state-owned broadcaster RTS, military Brigadier General Slavko Rakić said: “A sonic cannon uses a sound system that is amplified well above the sound system of humans and other living things. What we saw is nothing like that.

“The effect that is achieved is an amplified sound recording and it should be audible, but that is not present in the recordings.”

The public prosecutor’s office in Belgrade has instructed the Ministry of Internal Affairs to investigate the incident.

Between 275,000 and 325,000 people were estimated to have taken part in the protest. The government put the attendance at 107,000.

One of the places where protesters gathered – was outside Belgrade’s bright-yellow Student Cultural Centre in the heart of the Serbian capital.

For more than four months, students have blockaded their universities and organised protests, demanding that those responsible for the railway station collapse be brought to justice.

Eyewitnesses who spoke to BBC Serbian reported hearing the noise, but the intensity varied depending on where they stood in the crowd.

Some likened it to the roar of a Formula One race, while others said it sounded like an airplane flying low overhead, or even the sound of an MRI machine.

“It was like being on the starting line of a Grand Prix,” said 43-year-old protester Ivan Vasic. “I didn’t feel anything afterwards, but my wife complained of a bad headache that lasted until late in the night.”

Other protesters described feeling vertigo-like sensations.

“It was a horrible sound. It was so powerful, and it felt like something was going to crash on to our heads,” said 37-year-old Lela Sredojevic.

“I had never felt anything like that. I was really scared. It lasted less than a minute, but in that moment, it felt like eternity.”

The tool at the centre of these claims is called a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) – commonly known as a sonic weapon or sonic cannon.

LRADs can focus sound waves at high intensities, causing pain, nausea, and disorientation and their use is prohibited under Serbian police law.

“Sonic systems are a more recent development, emerging in the early 2000s,” BBC Russian’s defence correspondent Pavel Aksenov said.

“They can target either crowds or individuals, and have been used by police and military units in a number of countries to suppress riots, disperse demonstrations, guard checkpoints, or even protect ships from pirate attacks.

He added that although these weapons are classified as non-lethal, they can still cause harm to human health and their impact is hard to regulate.

Trevor Cox, professor of Acoustic Engineering at the University of Salford, told the BBC that a sound loud enough to cause the symptoms many reported should be more audible in the footage circulating on social media.

“If people are noticing either a ringing in the ear or a temporary threshold shift – like when you come out of a night club and you are slightly deaf – it indicates sound that is loud enough to cause temporary damage to your hearing.”

“That’s quite serious because that can become permanent,” he said.

However, Professor Cox also suggested the incident might not have involved a “sonic weapon.”

“Even if the sound wasn’t loud enough to cause hearing damage, it could still trigger a fight-or-flight response and a mass crowd reaction. Tinnitus can also be triggered by stress,” he added.

Jürgen Altmann, a physicist who has studied acoustic weapons and their effects, told the BBC that the noise “seems to have been produced by a strong acoustic source, maybe a device from the LRAD family”, but added that “other mechanisms are possible”.

A group of six Serbian NGOs said in a joint statement: “From 500 reports from citizens and their testimonies, it is clear that during the protest on 15 March, there was a strong sonic boom, which caused a series of physical and psychological reactions among those present.”

“According to testimonies, those present felt a strong sound impact, followed by a wave of heat or wind,” they added.

Despite the chaos, there is little expectation that this movement will subside.

Large demonstrations are expected to resume as soon as this week, and smaller protests, like one involving around 500 students on Monday, are becoming routine.

A young female protester summed it up: “Literally everyone I know went to the protest. Usually, people make excuses. Now everyone is on their way.”

Additional reporting by Daniel Wittenberg