PARIS: A thunderous noise that panicked residents of Paris on Wednesday was caused by the sonic boom of a fighter jet breaking the sound barrier, police said.

The military said the jet was scrambled to go to the aid of a passenger aircraft that had lost radio contact, and had been authorised to travel at supersonic speed.

“A very loud noise was heard in Paris and in the Paris region. It was not an explosion, it was a fighter jet crossing the sound barrier,” Paris police said on Twitter, urging people to stop calling emergency phone lines.

The noise, which was heard all over the city and neighbouring suburbs and shook windows, rattled Parisians already on edge after a knife attack outside the former offices of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo last week that the government has called an act of terror.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2020