Flash grenade

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M84 shock grenade

A flash grenade or shock grenade , also known as flashbang , is a grenade that explodes with a loud bang (approx. 170–180 dB) and very bright light (6–8 million candelas ). People who are in the vicinity of the explosion area are briefly disoriented because their visual and hearing perception are severely impaired. As a rule, no fragments are created in the explosion , which makes stun grenades usable even if civilians are in the vicinity of the explosion (e.g. when hostages are taken ). However, the impact trauma can also result in permanent hearing impairment. The ignition mixture is mostly based on magnesium and perchlorate .

Often a combination of noise and stun grenades is used, which leads to complete confusion for people who are unexpectedly exposed to the extreme stress. This type grenade is mainly of special units of the police and the military used during the storming of a room or building.

The delay times are between 0.5 s and 1.5 s. A distinction is made between tactical stun grenades and irritation projectiles. With the stun grenade the sense of balance in the inner ear is overloaded by the overpressure / volume. In the case of the irritation projectile, which has between six and nine bang effects, the duration and volume are intended to distract the target from the actual action (e.g. police access ).

A controversial special form of the stun grenade are firecrackers, such as those used by the police in some countries to violently break up demonstrations. The loud bang and the pressure wave are supposed to drive the demonstrators apart. When such grenades were used during a demonstration against the French Superphénix breeder reactor in July 1978, a demonstrator died when the pressure wave from the explosion injured his lungs. The journalist Guy Smallman was seriously injured in the protests in Geneva in 2003 against the G8 summit in Évian-les-Bains in 2003 by such a grenade in his left leg.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Plontke, S., et al. "Recovery of the hearing threshold after impact trauma from fireworks and signal pistols." ENT 51.3 (2003): 245-250.
  2. ^ WOZ - Die Saboteure ( Memento of September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed December 10, 2009)
  3. ↑ images ( online )
  4. ↑ 20 minutes - Videos weigh heavily on Geneva police

Web links

Commons : Stun grenade  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Stun grenade  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations