The article below was published in the daily newspaper Le Provençal, Marseille, France, page 9, on January 9, 1954.
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Dieppe (A.C.P.)
No one yet knows what happened in Dieppe, where, last night, a tremendous explosion occurred, shattering hundreds of windows.
This phenomenon is being compared to the explosions that occurred a few days ago in the sky over London, which likewise remain unexplained.
Witnesses who were at the port at the moment of the blast declared:
"A huge ball of fire lit up the horizon. The phenomenon lasted two seconds, then night returned. Four or five minutes later, the tremendous explosion tore through the air. We thought the gasoline depot in Rouen had blown up. We also considered the possibility that a jet aircraft had disintegrated mid-flight, but changed our minds, since such an explosion could not light up an entire city."
It cannot be said that the people of Dieppe were victims of a mass hallucination.
Within a 100-kilometer radius, all testimonies are consistent: railway workers in Serqueux, 40 kilometers from Dieppe; residents of Mailleraye, 60 kilometers away; people from Forges-les-Eaux in Seine-Inférieure, and even from the Arras region, all saw and heard the explosion and its flash.
According to scientists at the Paris Astrophysics Institute, it was very likely the explosion of a meteorite.
Metallic-looking fragments, some as large as ordinary pebbles, were discovered on the beach in Dieppe shortly after the appearance of the mysterious luminous phenomenon.
Sent to the municipal laboratory in Rouen for analysis, these fragments were found by chemists to be iron-based. So far, they have been unable to further identify their composition or determine their precise origin with certainty.
