Some suggested it sounded like 'fireworks' - but others compared the loud noises to 'aircraft sonic booms'

Several loud 'mystery bangs' that shook windows baffled people across the country on Saturday night.

Dozens of Twitter uses from London to Glasgow claimed to have heard the strange noises, which sounded like fireworks or loud aircraft and occurred between 10pm and 10.30pm.

Some suggested it sounded like 'aircraft sonic booms' and pointed to Russian airships that were performing 'routine military exercises' while passing through the English Channel.

What are the mystery 'explosions'? 8 explanations for strange 'loud bangs' across UK

But the Ministry of Defence denied any knowledge of jets being scrambled and Met Police said the only possible explanation they were aware of was a firework display in Croydon.

However others were reporting to have heard bangs around the same time over 100 miles away.

And several claimed on social media that their pets appeared to have been 'spooked' by the strange noises.

Twitter user Dave Reed claimed: "Dogs went crazy for a couple of minutes here in Fareham. Assumed audible distant bangs were fireworks."

But a Met Police spokesperson said apart from the firework display, they were unaware of any ongoing incidents the bangs could be related to.

Britain has been on its second highest terrorism threat level of severe, meaning an attack is considered highly likely, since August.

At 3am on Saturday morning a loud explosion was reported to have been heard in the area near to Britain's largest army training base Catterick.

Police carried out a lengthy investigation involving counter-terrorism experts, a helicopter and bomb detection dogs.

But despite closing the A1 motorway and a the search taking up the whole of the day, no official explanation was given and no evidence of any explosions were found.

Earlier this week another mysterious bang was heard over Manchester by several residents - fire crews spent an hour searching for the source of this but nothing was found.

Speaking about this morning's 'explosion' in Catterick, police superintendent Dave Hannan said: "We are satisfied that the call to the police was made in good faith.

"In view of the location of the suspected explosion, the source of the information, the current threat level to UK security and a report a few hours earlier of a vehicle seen in suspicious circumstances outside the barracks, we were not prepared to take any chances with people's safety."

On Monday, Home Secretary Theresa May said Britain was facing the biggest terrorism threat in its history.

Since August dozens of terrorism suspects, including some accused of plotting to kill police officers or soldiers, have been arrested.