Belgrade, Serbia - The European Court of Human Rights said on Wednesday that Serbia "speaks of sound weapons or similar devices should be prevented from using crowd control," asserting that artillery was targeting protesters at a huge anti-government rally held on March 15.

The court in Strasbourg, France, said its interim measures did not mean that it "had any position on whether the use of such a weapon had occurred" in part of months-long anti-corruption protests in the Balkan countries.

Serbian authorities have repeatedly denied opposition claims, and several experts believe that during the March protests, the sound weapons broke the monumental silence, causing sudden panic, while experiencing a series of symptoms and a huge discomfort.

Authorities initially said Serbian security agencies did not have any sound equipment, but later admitted that they did have several.

The European Court said 47 Serbian nationals filed complaints about the incident, while as many as 4,000 people reported their experience in applications collected by a group of Serbian civil society groups. The court dismissed a request to investigate the incident or prevented legal action by people who publicly accused a certain device of legal action.

"The applicants allegedly experienced strong instinctive fear, panic, shock, accelerated heartbeat, tremor, hearing problems, vomiting, nausea, tachycardia and similar symptoms," the court statement said. "Some people allegedly suffered physical harm due to the panic."

Rally videos show people standing peacefully ahead of a sudden outbreak of panic and a brief stampede. A Associated Press photographer at the scene said people started scrambling to cover up, and the middle of downtown street was almost empty when they started falling down each other.

"The State should prevent the use of sound weapons or similar equipment in future protests by state and/or non-state actors," the ECHR said. "Any use of sound equipment for crowd control (except for communication purposes) must be prevented in the future."

The court “points that in Serbia, especially with the serious health impacts that may have on many people, it is illegal to use such weapons for crowd control.”

After protests in Serbia began, protests caused by the collapse of the train station in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people. Many in Serbia blame the tragedy on so-called rampant government corruption, which intensifies respect for safety regulations and negligence during station construction renovations.

The protests have evolved into a national campaign to demand victims and the rule of law in Serbia, a Balkan nation seeking membership in the EU, but its populist president, Aleksandar Vucic, is accused of promoting democracy and freedom while building ties with Russia and Russia and China.