A student protest in Belgrade, Serbia. (image-X/@trompyozza)
Belgrade, Serbia: Since the past few days, the Balkan country has been witnessing a historic protest led by students against the government over endemic corruption.
All public transport in Belgrade came to a halt, but that didn’t prevent hundreds and thousands from taking to the streets against the government led by President Aleksandar Vucic.
Nearly 100,000 people bearing flags raised slogans as part of a massive rally that did not budge despite occasional rain on Saturday. However, several reports suggest the number is much higher.
The Serbian independent media described it as the biggest rally ever seen in the country, with the numbers actually being much higher.
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The Novi Sad Roof Collapse
It all started when a 35-metre (115 ft) concrete roof above the entrance of a railway station in the northern city of Novi Sad, Serbia, on November 1, 2024. The incident killed 15 people, including a six-year-old girl. Notably, the station had reopened in July after three years of renovations with ongoing construction work in parts of the station in the country’s second largest city.
Novi Sad is the second largest city in Serbia, located near regional capitals like Budapest, Zagreb and Vienna. It is a hub for travelers from across the region.
Aleksandar Vucic, President of Serbia (image-Facebook/Александар Вучић)
During his address, Vucic said that the canopy was not part of the renovations, promising to investigate the cause of the accident. November 2 was declared a day of mourning.
Since the incident, criticism against Vucic’s government only increased, with many blaming the crash on rampant government corruption and negligence of construction safety regulations.
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A Student-Led Protest that United the Nation
Soon protests erupted in the streets of Serbia. Led by university students, the protests began with them blockading most state universities for over three months. The students were not alone. Professors, healthcare workers, war veterans, lawyers, farmers, IT professionals and more joined them.
What started as a demand for accountability for the collapse at the Novi Sad station soon transformed into a much bigger outrage over alleged systemic corruption under the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and President Vucic.
Wow. The protest in Belgrade tonight against the pro-Russia President Aleksandar Vučić is the largest in Serbia’s history! pic.twitter.com/dIsOCyvREZ
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) March 15, 2025
Several Serbian citizens observed that something in the country had shifted.
“This is a rare moment where the whole of Serbia is united under one cause. Even if the country doesn’t change after this, we’ll know that we stood up together and made our voices heard,” said a young man protesting in Belgrade.
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The Subsonic Weapon
On March 15 (Saturday), videos of a massive protesting crowd suddenly dispersing surfaced online. Reports of security forces using a prohibited sonic weapon on the non-violent crowd surfaced.
Footage from the rally shows the peaceful crowd standing during a 15-minute silence for the victims killed in the roof collapse when a sudden piercing sound triggered panic and a brief stampede as the crowd started scrambling for cover.
Those present during the incident complained of sharp ear pain, nausea, disorientation, and panic. According to experts, exposure to the weapon can cause eardrum ruptures and irreversible hearing damage.
Some security experts alleged that the weapon used was the US-made Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) – a specialised sound-emitting tool capable of delivering high-frequency sound waves over significant distances. These claims are not verified yet.
[BAD VIBES] Subsonic Weapon used on the crowd in Belgrade today, making them react like some kind of magic attacked them
byu/Supersecko inwoahdude
Serbian rights groups and opposition alleged that the weapon that emits a targeted beam to temporarily incapacitate people was used at the protest site. The weapon is banned in Serbia.
Calls for an independent investigation into the matter have been increasing since.
On Monday, Vucic denied the allegations, calling it a “wicked lie” aimed to “destroy” Serbia. Meanwhile, Serbian officials indirectly admitted that the police had added the crowd control weapon two years ago to their arsenal but insisted that it was not used during the Saturday rally in Belgrade, as per reports.
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President Vucic Alleges Western Ploy
Meanwhile, President Vucic claimed that the ongoing protests are part of a Western ploy to oust him from power. He has presented no evidence to substantiate his claim though.
Vucic’s supporters, reportedly including former members of a paramilitary unit involved in the assassination of Serbia’s first democratic Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic in 2003, have been camping in central Belgrade in front of his headquarters.
Vucic has been in power since 2017.
