Mystery sonic boom rattles Mediterranean resorts

A sonic boom heard in Tuscany and on the French island of Corsica, initially mistaken by holidaymakers, locals and officials for an earthquake, may have been a meteorite, experts said.

The town of Campo nell'Elba, on the Italian tourist island of Elba, said on its Facebook page that a nearby tracking station had "captured a seismic, acoustic event felt by everyone" at 4:30pm (1430gmt).

Corsican media reports said it was also felt on the island.

Tuscany regional government president Eugenio Giani initially said it was an earthquake, before backtracking after Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) ruled one out.

The Italian Air Force told Giani it had nothing to do with the sonic boom.

"The type of event which caused the tremor, felt by many as an earthquake over the entire coast of Tuscany and in some inland areas, is currently unconfirmed," Giani wrote on social media.

The region's Geophysics Institute and the University of Florence said in a joint statement that whatever caused the boom was traveling at 400 miles per second.

"A meteorite entering the atmosphere seems the most likely and in line with the data registered."

The Corriere della Sera daily quoted an unnamed person from Italy's civil protection agency saying "the impact would have been registered by seismographs. The most likely hypothesis is still an airplane."

It is not the first time mysterious sonic booms have been registered on Elba, the Corriere della Sera said. Similar events in 2012, 2016 and 2023 have yet to be explained, it said.