London residents were mystified by three loud explosions that reportedly caused homes to shake on Sunday night.
Video footage taken by a man in Ilford captured the strange sounds that were heard across East London and Essex at about 11 p.m. Sunday night.
Londoners took to social media to find out what was going on.
Aliens were suspected of making the noise, as were meteors, fighter jets and fireworks.
The man who filmed the loud bangs also captured a flash of light just before the explosion, and believes it was all caused by a meteorite.
“It was too loud to be a firework that's for sure and fireworks don't shake houses,” he said, the Daily Star reports. “I don't think it's a supersonic aircraft as a sonic boom does not give off light.”
A spokesperson from the Royal Observatory dismissed the meteorist theory, the Express reports, explaining that a meteor blast “would only occur after a sustained bright light during atmospheric entry - not a quick flash as shown in the video.” They also said it was unlikely that three explosions would have occurred, and said “it looks and sounds a little bit more like a firework.”
While some theories such as aliens or loud music seemed a little unlikely, others were more alarming, such as the theory that it was a fighter jet being shot down.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said, “We know nothing about it. A sonic boom would suggest there was a foreign plane in our airspace, which was not the case.”
The police were alerted to the mystery, but didn’t offer an explanation. "We had reports from Ilford and had a look but there was nothing untoward," a Metropolitan Police spokesperson told BNO news.
Although the RAF failed to offer an explanation for the loud noises in London, they did take responsibility for two sonic boom explosions heard in Yorkshire in early May.
Two fighter jet Typhoons were sent to intercept a passenger plane that lost radio contact, the Independent reported.