A loud mysterious booming sound heard across parts of Bengaluru on Wednesday leaving locals puzzled was, in fact, the sonic boom of a routine test flight of the Indian Air Force, officials said.
"It was a routine IAF Test Flight involving a supersonic profile which took off from Bengaluru Airport and flew in the allotted airspace well outside city limits. The aircraft was of Aircraft Systems and Testing Establishment (ASTE)" the Defence Ministry tweeted tagging the Defence Spokesperson.
The sonic boom was probably heard while "the aircraft was decelerating from supersonic to subsonic speed between 36,000 and 40000 feet altitude, it said.
"The aircraft was far away from the city limits when this occurred. The sound of a sonic boom can be heard and felt by an observer even when the aircraft is flying as far away as 65 to 80 kilometres away from the person" the ministry added.
The loud sound was heard across eastern Bengaluru- from Kempegowda International Airport, Kalyan Nagar, MG road, Marathahalli, Whitefield, Sarjapur, Electronic city right up to Hebbagodi.
M N Anucheth, DCP, Whitefield Division, Bengaluru had said earlier that "We are trying to ascertain the source of the sound. We have conducted searches on the ground in the Whitefield area but so far there is no damage to anything."
Karnataka's state disaster monitoring centre had also tweeted that it was not an earthquake.
"Earthquake activity will not be restricted to one area and will be widespread. We have checked our sensors and there is no earthquake activity recorded today," said Srinivas Reddy, Director of Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC).
The "boom" in Bengalaru was a topic of discussion on social media and #BangaloreBoom was among the top trends on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon.
( With inputs from ANI )