A gigantic explosion has been heard over London and Cambridge after a pair of fighter jets created a sonic boom.
People living in the areas around RAF Coningsby and way beyond reported their houses 'shaking' after the jet aircraft made 'a hell of a bang' as it accelerated to beyond the speed of sound.
A sonic boom is created by shock waves created whenever an object travels beyond the sound barrier, and it's an incredibly loud noise.
So loud, in fact, that it was heard across a wide area surrounding the English capital, as well as in Cambridgeshire and Essex.
Even Cambridge City Council were moved to tweet about the incident, writing: "If you heard a massively loud bang over Cambridge in the last few minutes, don't panic - apparently it was the sonic boom from a fighter plane breaking the sound barrier!"
Such was the noise that some people interpreted it as an explosion, and thought that perhaps a construction site had collapsed, or that the boiler in their own house had blown up.
However, it was because a pair of RAF fighter jets had recently been scrambled from RAF Coningsby to intercept a private plane.
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Despite the swift action from the Royal Air Force base, it's not thought that there is anything to worry about.
The aircraft had been travelling into the UK's airspace from Germany, but had lost communication with the air traffic controllers on the ground, according to Sky News.
The two Typhoon jets that caused all of the commotion were sent from the Lincolnshire RAF base - which is one of two Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) stations that protect UK airspace.
They safely escorted the jet to Stansted Airport in the end.
Not before loads of people heard a massive bang, though. The startled folks who heard the sound were quick to log on to Twitter to talk about it.
One person wrote: "RAF Typhoon just made one heck of a sonic boom over Cambridgeshire. Nearly fell out of my chair."
Another said: "It was so loud I thought my other half had crashed through the patio doors!"
A third commented: "Sounds like the whole Romford area felt it, whole house shook and you could feel it in the ground.
"Sonic boom makes sense, my first thought was that nearby construction collapsed."
Sky News correspondent Alistair Bunkall later reported that the two Typhoons had been given permission to fly supersonic, but added: "Jet escorted safely into Stansted. Incident now over."
Featured Image Credit: PA (stock)Topics: Science, UK News, Interesting