The incident on Wednesday saw residents of Le Castellet, a small village in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region, deprived of power for around three hours after the fly-by from the Dassault-made jet.

"The crew were unharmed," Air Force spokesman Stephane Spet told AFP, adding that two Rafales were on a mission from their base in the east of France.

The mayor of Le Castellet Benoit Gouin told France Bleu local news that the plane "came so low that it made a hell of a noise."

He said he realised that it had gone under the electricity line and went to investigate, finding the two ends of the severed cable lying on the ground.

"I immediately called the emergency services and the team at Enedis," he added, referring to the local power company.

Air Force spokesman Spet said an investigation had been launched and added that such incidents were "very rare."

The Rafale is France's most state-of-the-art fighter jet, capable of speeds of more than 2,000 kilometres an hour (1,400 miles per hour), which has been deployed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Mali.