Visitors to Vienna might want to go easy on the beer and sausages, after a man was fined by police for offending public decency with a loud burp.

Edin Mehic was fined €70 ($77) for belching while standing close to a policeman in the city’s famous Prater Park.

Writing on Facebook, the local bar worker said he burped after eating a kebab with too much onion.

Moments later, he wrote: “I felt a hand on my shoulder”.

“But what had I done?... I was being reported for a ‘decency violation’, the policeman shouted.

“I had a long discussion with him about why he wasn’t picking up real criminals who were obviously consuming and selling completely legal drugs. That didn’t get us very far.”



Mehic posted a photograph of the fine on his Facebook page, which says that he violated “public decency with a loud belch next to a police officer”.

Police spokesman Roman Hahslinger confirmed on Monday that Mehic had been fined for the offending burp. Mehic plans to appeal against the fine.

Though it was emitted earlier this month, the belch continues to resonate.

By Monday, 118 people said they would attend a “loud belch” flash mob planned for next Saturday near the scene of the crime.

Associated Press contributed to this report