In an embodiment, a laser area sensor of the present invention comprises: a laser range finder (110); a scanning mechanism (120) that changes a measurement direction of the laser range finder (110); a distance data acquiring portion (130) that defines a detection area and acquires distance information in each direction in the detection area in a time-series manner, by periodically causing the laser range finder (110) to perform measurement while causing the measurement direction to be changed; a human body judging portion (140) that extracts a portion that is presumed to correspond to a human body, from among the distance information and judges whether or not the extracted portion matches a human body based on a time-series moving status of the extracted portion; an alert output control portion (150); a memory (160); and a DIP switch (170).