To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next Previous Page Next Page The Serbian authorities were accused of using a ‘sonic cannon’ during protests against the country’s president after videos that appeared to show people running away in panic emerged. Crowds estimated to be larger than 100,000 descended on the capital of Belgrade for a mass rally over the weekend. The Public Meeting Archive, which monitors crowd sizes, estimated up to 325,000 may have attended. At one point the crowd, which independent media in Serbia estimated to be the biggest ever in the Balkan nation, suddenly began to run to the side of the street. Shouts of panic could be heard, followed by a rushing sound. Some opposition politicians and rights groups have accused authorities of using a divisive ‘long-range acoustic device’ (LRAD). The controversy comes amid protests led by university students against Serbia’s populist President Aleksandar Vučić and his government, which began following the collapse of a concrete canopy at a train station in Serbia’s second city Novi Sad in November. The incident left 15 people dead, with protesters blaming President Vučić’s government, alleged corruption, and a lack of safety regulations. Reports in Serbian media said 22 people were arrested and 56 were injured during the protests. Vučić has remained defiant and has expressed his willingness to hold onto power after 13 years as Serbia’s president. He declared: ‘You will have to kill me if you want to replace me.’ What is a sonic cannon? Serbian authorities have denied using the military-grade device which was first developed by the US military in the early 2000s. LRADs are used to disorientate or briefly incapacitate people by emitting a strong wave of amplified sound over a large distance but precise point. In some uses they can be so accurate that a person standing next to the beam can hear close to nothing. Protesters waving Serbian flags and Christian icons at the weekend (Picture: Andrej Isakovic/AFP) The device has some history of use in crowd control, but they are controversial. Did Serbia use a sonic cannon? President Vučić called the alleged use of the weapon a ‘vile lie’ and its deployment has been denied by Serbian authorities, but human rights groups have made the accusation. According to reports by German news site Deutsche Welle (DW), Vučić said he had seen the weapon in action and that it emits a different sound to the one heard in Belgrade on Saturday night. Vučić added that there would be an investigation to ‘check’ that LRADs were not used, even though ‘we know they didn’t’. He also said those who said the weapon had been used should be prosecuted. DW were told by one protester that there was a noise like a ‘plane’ that was ‘landing from the direction of the presidency building’. They said protesters ‘didn’t know what to do’. Riot police have been sent in during the student-led rallies (Picture: EPA) Aleksandar Radić, military analyst who spoke to Balkans news channel N1, suggested an LRAD had been used. The Serbian human rights NGO the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) said it ‘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’. Melbourne University associate professor James Parker, who is the head of the Law, Sound and the International programme, told the Australian Broadcast Corporation the fact people were ‘terrified’ is ‘different to usual LRAD videos’. Parker also said there was ‘no way’ of telling if an LRAD was used, but that an ‘alert tone’ sound that indicates the use of a device was not apparent in the video. Is it legal? The BCSP said the use of LRADs as a crowd dispersal measure is not permitted in Serbia. The group said: ‘We remind the public that the use of acoustic devices and similar weapons is illegal, as they are not listed among permitted crowd-control measures under the current Police Law. Their deployment is also deeply inhumane.’ The group said that the Ministry of Internal Affairs attempted to introduce legislation to legalise its use in 2022, but this was dropped. It said: ‘A new draft law is currently under development, though it remains undisclosed to the public.’ Serbia has not denied that it possesses a sonic cannon. Have LRADs been used before? LRADs were deployed in response to some protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020. Tech company Genasys confirmed the use, saying its LRADs had been deployed across cities in the US including Portland, Oregon, Phoenix, Arizona and Columbus, Ohio among others. In 2022, Sky News reported the then-Conservative government wanted to use LRADs to deter migrants from making Channel boat crossings, but the idea was blocked by the Home Office. An LRAD was also fixed to a landing craft on the Thames close to Westminster ahead of the London Olympics in 2012. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. For more stories like this, check our news page.