Residents panic, windows shake as sonic boom from fighter jet rattles 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 in the French capital said.

The military said the jet had been scrambled to go to the aid of another aircraft that had lost radio contact, and was 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.

“A Rafale, carrying out an intervention to assist an aircraft that had lost contact, was authorised to break the sound barrier to reach the aircraft in difficulty,” a French air force spokesman said.

No detail was given on the type of aircraft or the nature of its difficulty. The spokesman said the fighter emitted its sonic boom over the east of Paris.