All day Saturday, hundreds of thousands of citizens marched through downtown Belgrade in the largest student rally Serbia has seen since the start of protests last November.
The largely peaceful gathering had just entered its seventh hour when students called on the crowd to observe a 15-minute silence to honor the 15 people who were killed when the canopy over the entrance to Novi Sad railway station collapsed on November 1.
People lit up the darkness with their phones, and everyone fell silent.
Then, at precisely 7:11 p.m., panic ensued as a loud noise suddenly came out of nowhere, and people began to flee.
Some videos shared on social media show groups of people suddenly splitting in two or people fleeing in panic, as though they were being chased.
Intense panic and disorientation “It sounded like a crazy rumbling, like a jet flying overhead,” Miroslav Lukic told DW. “But it wasn’t deafeningly loud—more like a distant, threatening noise.”
NGOs estimate that between 275,000 and 325,000 people attended the rally in Belgrade on SaturdayImage: Str/REUTERS “It sounded like an airplane was landing, coming from the direction of the Presidential Palace,” said Dusan Simin.
“I had the impression that huge armored vehicles were approaching,” Bojana Milanovic told DW.
“It felt like some invisible wave that split us to the left and right,” recalled Jelena Ristanovic. “The eye couldn’t see anything, but the body felt intense panic and disorientation.”
A loud, strange noise and vibrations DW spoke with about a dozen people who were on the streets in downtown Belgrade on Saturday evening. Every one of them described hearing a brief, loud, strange noise and vibrations that made them feel as though danger was approaching.
“We couldn’t escape it; we didn’t know what to do,” said Dusan Simin. “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.”
Jelena Ristanovic was also disorientated: “When it happened, I instinctively pulled the hood of my jacket over my head,” she said. “My legs gave way for a while.”
Serbians come out in force in anti-government protestsTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
“I was really scared, and I ran about 20–30 meters,” said Miroslav Lukic. “When a man next to me started yelling ‘They can’t kill us all,’ I came to my senses and began to look around to see what was happening.”
Bojana Milanovic reported feeling confused and panicked: “I didn’t know where to hide, and I felt like someone was chasing us,” she said. “When we stopped and saw nothing was wrong, we looked at each other and asked what had happened.”
Was a sound cannon deployed? Milanovic is not alone in this: Everyone in Serbia wants to know what it was that interrupted the 15-minute silence in Belgrade on Saturday.
Military expert Aleksandar Radic was one of the first to suggest that a so-called “sound cannon” had been used against the protesters.
“The reactions of the people show that they were affected by infrasound,” he told DW. “Some people have symptoms typical of such a situation. One piece of indirect proof is the fact that pro-government supporters gathered in Pionirski Park were each given an umbrella to protect against low-frequency sounds.”
This theory is supported by Professor Zoran Maksimovic of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts at the University of Arts in Belgrade, who teaches courses related to sound.
The protest had been going on for over six hours when the unexpected noise caused panic on the streets of the capital. Authorities have denied that a sonic weapon was used to disperse protesters in BelgradeImage: Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty Images “It’s basically just a regular speaker, but specially designed to be directed and extremely loud. It has a very long range—up to several kilometers,” he explained to DW.
Maksimovic says that music, speech, a sound effect like a flying jet or a specifically generated frequency signal can be played using this speaker.
Or was it a vortex cannon? However, experts from the international organization Earshot argue that based on their analysis of videos provided by the Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA),
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