Paris boom: Buildings shake across French capital after huge blast heard

[The Viper]

The cause of the loud bang was confirmed to be from a fighter jet breaking the sound barrier. The plane was scrambled in response to another aircraft crossing into the city's restricted airspace

A defence ministry spokesman confirmed it was a sonic boom but did not immediately offer further comment.

Police in Paris urged people not to phone the emergency phone lines after they heard the boom.

They said: "A very important noise was heard in Paris and in the Paris region.

"There is no explosion, it is about a fighter plane which crossed the sound barrier.

"Don't clutter up the emergency lines!"

Footage of a French Open match between Stan Wawrinka and Dominik Koepfer showed the game pause after they heard the loud noise.

A bang can then be heard in the background of the video as the players looked on in confusion.

Social media users were quick to share their experience of hearing the loud explosion.

One person wrote: "Heard it 10 minutes ago East of Paris, looks like a supersonic, followed by two minutes roar."

Other people share their horror as they initially thought the sound was an attack.

One person tweeted: "Sound of explosion near the François Mitterrand Library, we were all afraid that it was an attack."

Other witnesses said they felt their buildings shaking

The effects of the huge noise were also heard in several central districts.

However, there are not yet any reports of smoke or fire.

No injures have yet been reported either.

It comes just days after a knife attack took place outside the former offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris on Friday.

The attack resulted in two people being injured, with one in a critical condition.

The attack is also being treated as an Islamist extremist attack by police.

A total of seven people have been arrested in relation to the incident.

It took place on the same week a trial was being held over the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack, when a gunmen killed 12 employees after it published caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1341799/paris-explosion-versaille-france-explosion-latest-video

 

[MenInG]

A French military plane broke the sound barrier and startled Parisians after it was scrambled to aid two commercial aircraft which had lost radio contact.

Players at the French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament paused play in astonishment.

People in Paris have been on edge following last week's knife attack, deemed a terrorist act by authorities.

This time French police hastened to urge residents fearful of an explosion not to call emergency services.

"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," an Air Force spokesman told AFP news agency.

A sonic boom is the noise linked to shock waves created when an object travels through air faster than the speed of sound. It can sound similar to explosions or thunder.

The sound barrier was broken in the east of Paris, said army spokesman Colonel Stephane Spet, according to Reuters news agency.

Communication with both aircraft was restored shortly after the boom, France's civil aviation authority told AFP.

One plane was a Falcon 50 operated by a Brazilian company flying between Cape Verde and Brussels, and the other was travelling between French cities Brives and Saint-Brieuc and operated by Amelia airline.

The loud noise shook windows around the city and suburbs of Paris and caused alarm to residents.

At Roland Garros, tennis players Stan Wawrinka and Dominik Koepfer paused their game as the sound echoed around the court.

Another player, Ukraine's Elina Svitolina, commented: "Yeah, I heard it. I was a bit worried because I thought something bad happened."

"I looked at the chair umpire. He was little bit shocked as well because you never know these days what can happen, what's going on."

"A very loud noise was heard in Paris and in the Paris region. It was not an explosion, it was a fighter jet breaking the sound barrier," French police wrote on Twitter on Tuesday lunchtime, urging people not to call.

Last Friday, a man with a knife cleaver attacked and wounded two people in the street outside the former office of controversial satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

It came as a high-profile trial was under way of 14 people accused of helping two jihadists carry out the 2015 attack on Charlie Hebdo, in which 12 people were killed.

On Monday seven people were detained in connection with last week's attack.

An inquiry will be launched into why the aircraft lost radio contact, French authorities said on Tuesday.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

My first impression on reading the quotes from players at the French Open was how unnerved and anxious those booms must have made them feel. Was it a terror attack? Was it close by, and could they be in danger?

The next thought was, if that's how they feel, imagine how they would feel if there was an actual attack, missiles crashing into cities from jet fighters, tanks blowing buildings to rubble burying civilians?

We are truly blessed to be living in the west where loud bangs are rarely heard and we get spooked by a sonic boom once in a blue moon.