Sales of personal self-defence equipment like tasers are said to have increased in some European countries since the end of 2015.
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Sales of self-defence equipment are said be on the rise in some countries in Europe.
Taser devices can currently be bought legally over the counter in Poland, Slovakia, France, the Czech Republic and Germany.
Store owner Andreas Engels from Frankfurt thinks demand began to grow towards the end of the year.
“People weren’t sure themselves why they were buying the guns, it was more a general fear.”
“After New Year, the desire for self-defence exploded and more people came in and bought them.”
Prague-based dealer Bretislav Kostal says 15,000 of the 25,000 items he sold in 2015 were in the last four months of the year.
“The orders really started to come in in September. One man ordered a thousand, a second wanted another thousand. Before that we were barely ordering a thousand a month.”
“We are now getting them on a weekly basis so I would say our orders have trebled.”
Ingo Meinhard, the head of Germany’s Weapons Dealers Association, says there has been increasing interest in defensive products following last November’s Paris attacks and the New Year disturbances in Cologne.