The military said the jet had been scrambled to go to the aid of another aircraft that had lost radio contact, and was authorised to travel at supersonic speed.

"A very loud noise was heard in Paris and in the Paris region. It was not an explosion, it was a fighter jet crossing the sound barrier," Paris police said on Twitter, urging people to stop calling emergency phone lines.

The noise, which was heard all over the city and neighbouring suburbs and shook windows, rattled Parisians already on edge after a knife attack outside the former offices of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo last week that the government has called an act of terror.

"A Rafale, carrying out an intervention to assist an aircraft that had lost contact, was authorised to break the sound barrier to reach the aircraft in difficulty," a French air force spokesman told AFP.

No detail was given on the type of aircraft or the nature of its difficulty. The spokesman said the fighter emitted its sonic boom over the east of Paris.

Wednesday's incident led to confusion, with people taking to social media to ask about the noise that many noted came without any smoke or other traces of damage.

It was clearly heard during the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros, where star player Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland and his German opponent Dominik Koepfer paused in astonishment and apparent worry as the noise echoed around the stadium.

Last Friday, two people were wounded in an attack by a man wielding a meat cleaver outside the former offices of Charlie Hebdo in central Paris.

The assault came three weeks into the trial of suspected accomplices in the January 2015 attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket.

Seventeen people were killed in the three-day spree of violence in 2015, including Charlie Hebdo staff and a policewoman.

The bloodshed heralded a wave of Islamist violence in France that has left 258 people dead. The nation remains on high terror alert.