WAS it a bird, was it a UFO or was it two planes feeling a little supersonic?

The mysterious boom that was heard across a swathe of the country last Thursday evening caused confusion across the Cotswolds.

Speculation on Facebook was rife that UFOs had landed and even that the noise was somehow related to romantic shenanigans between the two pandas at Edinburgh Zoo.

Holidaymaker Sheryl Neale said the noise “created a mild panic” at the caravan club site in Moreton “with people thinking a van had blown up, maybe caused by a barbecue”.

Lynn Ashford heard the noise when she was in the Congregational Church in Moreton on Thursday evening.

“It was loud. It was terrifically loud,” she said.

“First off I thought someone had put a football through the window – the window rattled and the door rattled.”

Robb Eden, aged 61, of St Paul’s Court, Moreton, felt his house shake.

He said: “At first I thought the roof had caved in or something had hit the house.

“It was an enormous thud – the type that you would hear from a car hitting the side of the house.”

The mysterious noise was in fact a sonic boom caused by two Typhoon aircraft responding to an emergency, according to the Ministry of Defence.

The RAF jets were scrambled after a civilian helicopter emitted a signal on a frequency normally reserved for emergencies.

An MoD spokesman said the fighter planes had been authorised to go supersonic and were already on their way to the helicopter.

He said: “Two typhoons from the Quick Reaction Alert responded accordingly and authorisation was given from them to go supersonic, which resulted in the sonic boom.

“There was no actual threat to the civilian aircraft and they soon rectified their mistake.”