Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has brushed aside accusations that his police forces used a military-grade LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Devices) cannon against a crowd of hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters in the capital on Saturday.
Rally-goers were seen in footage on social media dispersing frantically during a 15-minute silence that was being observed during the protest.
Newsweek has contacted Serbia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment by email.
Why It Matters
Rights groups in Serbia have raised concerns that the acoustic weapon, which is banned, was used over the weekend.
The Balkan Insight outlet reported Monday that students from the Belgrade Faculty of Medicine “protested outside the Clinical Centre of Serbia’s Emergency Centre, demanding accurate information about patients admitted with symptoms after Saturday’s mass rally, suggesting they may have been victims of a ‘sonic blast.'”
What To Know
In an address to the nation, Vučić said “it is a vile lie” that a LRAD—commonly known as a sonic weapon—was used, at the mass rally in Belgrade on Saturday.
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators rallied against Vučić and his administration, as part of a broader national movement protesting corruption. The protests began after a concrete canopy collapsed at a train station in northern Serbia in November, resulting in the deaths of 15 people.
One protester, Marija Simin, told the Balkan Insight that she recalled hearing a strange, “unnatural” noise resembling a jet engine, followed by a powerful rush of wind.
“We only had so much time to look at each other and say: ‘What is this?'” Simin said, adding that she fell to the ground, while others began moving toward sidewalks.
“I fell backwards, with my pelvis probably on the curb. I hit my head on a metal post, my friend fell over me, and someone else, too,” she added.
She later sought medical help and was given medicine for back pain.
At the 11-minute mark of the 15-minute silence, around 400 meters from Drop contributor @sedamdeseti, the calm was shattered by a sonic weapon, or “sonic cannon,” used by Serbia’s security forces. Military analyst Aleksandar Radić told N1 that this American-made, non-lethal… pic.twitter.com/a8l9t1ewQk
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) March 15, 2025
Another protester who asked to be identified only as U.M also described hearing “some kind of low howling sound” which lasted about 10 to 15 seconds “during which you didn’t know what was happening at all—whether someone was coming, whether they were running away, or whether someone was attacking.”
He said a stampede followed the sound, and his wife and others fell to the ground.
Vučić said he has had the opportunity to see a LRAD cannon abroad, “and it emits a strong, piercing sound.”
“That sound was not heard on the streets of Belgrade on Saturday night,” the Serbian president added.
According to the U.S.-based nonprofit Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), acoustic weapons are used “for crowd-control purposes by emitting loud and painful levels of noise that may lead to significant harms to the ears, potentially causing hearing loss.”
It notes that the LRAD “can cause pain at 20 meters and permanent hearing loss at close range (5 meters or less).”
“There are significant concerns about the high potential of acoustic weapons to cause serious and permanent injury,” the nonprofit said.
Russia is Serbia’s key ally in blocking international recognition of its former province of Kosovo, and Vučić has insisted that he would not take sides in the Russia-Ukraine war. He refused to join Western sanctions against Moscow following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In July, after meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko in Belgrade, Vučić described relations between Serbia and Russia as “very good.”
What People Are Saying
The Belgrade Center for Security Policy, a Serbian NGO, said in a statement: “The Belgrade Centre for Security Policy strongly condemns the unlawful and inhumane deployment of prohibited weapons, such as acoustic devices, against peaceful protesters during a public gathering of hundreds of thousands of citizens paying tribute to victims of the collapsed roof in Novi Sad.”
It added: “This act represents a blatant display of force and an attempt to incite chaos, aiming to delegitimise protests and criminalise peaceful citizens.”
What Happens Next?
Vučić has said an investigation will be launched into the incident, but added that “they should also prosecute those who went public with such a notorious lie.”
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