number of projectile spectators (see Refs. [@res_MCE; @NA49]). In this sample both the fluctuations of the number of participating nucleons and the resulting enhancement of multiplicity fluctuations should not exceed a few %.

Usually the ideal HG gas is used for the particle multiplicity calculations. The extension of the ideal gas picture based on the van der Waals (VDW) excluded volume procedure have been suggested in Refs. [@vdw; @vdw1; @crit] to phenomenologically take into account repulsive interactions between hadrons. This leads to the suppression of hadron number densities and energy density. In the present paper we study the effect of the VDW excluded volume on the multiplicity fluctuations. The particle number ratios are independent of the proper volume parameter, if it is the same for all hadron species. Thus, a rescaling of the total volume $V$ leads to exactly the same hadron yields as those in the ideal HG. In the present paper it is demonstrated that the multiplicity fluctuations are suppressed in the VDW gas. This suppression is qualitatively different from that of particle yields. In contrast to average multiplicities, the suppression of multiplicity fluctuations can not be removed by rescaling of the total volume of the system.

In 