RAF Fairford live updates: Five men arrested near base to be released on bail, police say

A farmer who claims to have alerted the police to a suspected terrorist bomb plot at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire has said she has had “no follow-up at all” from the authorities.

The woman told reporters on Monday that she did not see herself as a hero for having reported vans blocking a road near the base while on her way back from a party.

Five men from London were arrested in the village of Whelford, near to RAF Fairford, on Sunday on suspicion of explosives and terrorism offences.

The village remained shut off on Monday afternoon, with people evacuated from their homes dispersed to family, friends, hotels and a leisure centre.

The farmer, in her 50s, said she had been travelling home with her husband and a “young lad” who works for them when she spotted the vehicles parked in a “really strange formation”.

She said:

You couldn’t drive between them on the road, and you also couldn’t drive up the farm drive, and I think this has been one of the funny things that people are saying: ‘How could you notice?’ But when you live in Whelford, you notice everything. We all know what cars each other drive, we know who we are, we know the people that cycle through regularly.

She said one of the vans had some “strange sign writing on it” and she initially believed it belonged to undercover police.

She said:

We had a bit of a look at the vans, established there was no one in there, tried to phone the number on the side, just in case we could get it moved so we could drive down to the farmyard, and the number didn’t work.

The five men who were arrested and subsequently released on bail are all British citizens, home secretary Shabana Mahmood has just told the Labour party conference.

She adds that the scene is “now safe” and the residents living near to the RAF base are now able to return home.

“Let this be a reminder: you will never defeat us,” he says.

Police are considering whether the foiled attack may have involved “proxies or individuals, either knowingly or unknowingly, working on behalf of a foreign state”.

Taylor says rapid mobilisation was necessary. He says often these plots involve people seeking “quick financial gain”, rather than being motivated by terrorism.

The police works “hand in glove with MI5” to keep the public safe “from a myriad of threats” and urges people to report anything that does not “look right”.

And that ends the assistant commissioner for specialist operation’s statement on the steps of New Scotland Yard.

Taylor goes on to say that the five men in custody are being released on police bail later today.

“To be very clear, this does not mean the investigation is over,” he says. “They are subject to stringent conditions on their movement and contact with others.”

The men remain under investigation, he adds.

Head of counter-terrorism policing Laurence Taylor is providing an update outside New Scotland Yard in London.

He says Gloucestershire police received a report of suspicious vehicles in the vicinity of RAF Fairford and arrested five men on suspicion of offences under the Explosives Act and later preparation of a terrorist act, under section 5 of the Terrorism Act.

“The men had been travelling in three vehicles and, overnight, those vehicles have been subject to extensive examination,” he says.

Police remain at the scene and a cordon remains in place. He hopes residents will be able to return to their homes later today.

Andy Burnham has said he will chair an emergency Cobra meeting later today in response to the RAF Fairfod incident.

Such meetings are convened to handle matters of national emergency or major disruption, including natural disasters, terrorist attacks and major industrial accidents.

Speaking to LBC this afternoon, Burnham said:

What I can say is that I will chair a meeting of Cobra later this afternoon. Just to make sure we have the full picture of the full situation, very clearly, in our sights. And so maybe I’ll say more about that later today.

Nato’s supreme allied commander Alexus G. Grynkewich has warned the global security environment is “unsettled,” “complex” and “likely to become even more so over the next several years”.

“We were reminded of this again this past weekend in the United Kingdom, where five men were arrested on suspicion of committing offences under the Explosives Act in preparation of a terrorist act near RAF Fairford,” he said.

Speaking to the European parliament’s Committee on Security and Defence, Grynkewich said that China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are “collaborating in ways directly counter to all of our global interests.”

He said the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East showed “not only a changing character of warfare, but also a sobering preview of how future simultaneous and potentially protracted conflicts might look: multi-theater conflicts, multi-domain conflicts, and highly autonomous conflicts.” You can read more in our Europe live blog here:

The Liberal Democrat MP for South Cotswolds, Roz Savage, whose constituency covers the military base, said she would be writing to the prime minister and the defence secretary with her concerns about the events over the weekend, adding that her constituent’s safety was a priority.

Speaking to reporters in the village of Kempsford, Gloucestershire, which is situated adjacent to RAF Fairford, Savage said:

Ever since it was first announced six months ago that RAF Fairford was going to be used as the base for US military airstrikes on Iran, I’ve been asking questions of the government about whether they can assure my residents, my constituents, of their safety.

They had given that assurance, however, I feel that the events of this weekend do cast that into doubt. It actually makes my blood run cold when I think how close we may have come to disaster this weekend.

But in the longer term, I have a lot of questions about what happened or so nearly happened this weekend.

Who knew what? When did they know it? Where was the ball dropped? What more could have been done to secure the safety and security of my constituents?

The foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, has refused to comment on Donald Trump’s claim that the suspects arrested near RAF Fairford had been under surveillance for a long time. Speaking at a meeting on the fringe of the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, Milband, who took up the post in July, said:

You will understand there is an ongoing investigation and a limit to what I can say.

What I will say is, as I said in my conference speech, I think this emphasises the vigilance we need against the threats that our country faces, including on British soil.

I think that the counter-terrorism police, the intelligence services, the police themselves have done a really important job in arresting the suspects.

Beyond that, sorry to be disappointing, I’m not going to say anymore because it’s a live investigation.

The US air force said its personnel based at RAF Fairford “remain vigilant” but “for operational security reasons we will not discuss specific force protection measures”.

The US embassy in London, meanwhile, has warned Americans in Britain to be cautious and mindful of their personal security.

American B-1 and B-52 bombers have taken off from Fairford for operations during the ongoing US-Israel war on Iran.

Iran has previously said it considers any base used to attack its territory a legitimate target. But Iran’s embassy in London has this afternoon strongly rejected any speculation linking the country to the arrests of the five suspects near RAF Fairford.

The Reform leader, Nigel Farage, has told the BBC that the UK has to take national security a lot more seriously as he claims “we have allowed into Britain cells of people who intend to do us harm”.

In a separate interview with LBC, Farage said: “If a farmer coming home from a party at 1am is the person that discovered these people, it does raise questions.”

“Donald Trump is telling you more about the national security situation and about what I privately know, than we, as a country, are being told. We are in a very, serious situation. A very serious situation.”

Iran rejected ⁠the ⁠suggestion that ​it is ⁠linked to the ⁠five ​arrests ‌made ‌at ‌Britain’s Fairford airbase, according to ⁠a statement from ​the Iranian ​Embassy ​in ​London.

It said:

The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in London categorically rejects and strongly condemns the recent unfounded and malicious speculations published by some British individuals and media outlets attempting to link Iran to arrest of five suspects in the vicinity of RAF Fairford base.

The circulation of such fabricated speculations, particularly in the aftermath of the criminal acts of aggression committed by the United States and the Israeli regime against the Iranian people, will serve no purpose other than to fuel Iranophobia propaganda in the UK.

The Islamic Republic of Iran reserves the right to take appropriate legal measures, as necessary, to safeguard the rights and interests of the country and its people in response to misleading and damaging media narratives.

Gloucestershire constabulary were initially alerted to three suspicious vans travelling towards RAF Fairford at 12.45am on Sunday and it is unclear what action was taken in the hour that followed.

The local farmer who spotted the vans and a group of masked men said she initially called the Ministry of Defence police but there was no answer, so called 999 at 1.36am and armed police arrived around 10 minutes later, PA reported.

She said the police had “dropped the ball”, telling journalists:

Who knew that a farmer would have to roll their sleeves up and report the activity?

The counter terror police said the investigation has a “significant” number of resources dedicated to it, with military assets still deployed at the location.

The police confirmed that a cordon remains around the site and will be reviewed later today.

With roughly 85 properties located within the cordon, it is not clear when local residents, who were initially evacuated to Cirencester leisure centre before being relocated to Cotswold District Council’s chambers, will be allowed to return home.

The five men arrested over the suspected bomb plot near RAF Fairford are all British nationals in their 20s from London, Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) has said.

In a statement, the counter terror police said they were detained on suspicion of offences under the Explosives Act and preparation of a terrorist act contrary to Section 5 of the Terrorism Act. They are a 24-year-old from Camden, north London; three men aged 23, 24 and 25 from Westminster, central London, and one aged 24 from Willesden, north-west London.

The police say the suspects, who were arrested in the village of Whelford on Sunday morning, are being held under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act and a custody extension has been approved until later today. The CTP are still working to establish a motive for the incident.

Counter Terrorism Policing senior national coordinator, deputy assistant commissioner Vicki Evans, said in a statement:

This is a hugely complex and large-scale operation, involving local and national policing, the MOD, and local agencies, who are working together to progress the investigation and support for the community.

I know this has been incredibly disruptive for local people, but I’d like to reassure them that our activity is in the interest of national security, but most importantly in the interest of their own safety.

I’d also like to thank the emergency services for their response, including the armed officers who first attended the scene, not knowing what they may face.

I am very aware of the levels of speculation about the motivation behind this incident, and the geopolitical questions that are being raised. However, I ask that at this time, Counter Terrorism Policing are given the space to work carefully and clearly.

In an earlier post, we mentioned how the defence secretary, Wes Streeting, said the local farmer who contacted police after seeing a road blocked by “three white vans” near RAF Fairford only had a “partial picture” of events.

The farmer, from the village of Whelford, has now responded to those comments made by Streeting this morning. She told reporters:

I know it’s been said by some of the higher ups today that I didn’t have the full picture, but the picture I had was three extremely unusual vehicles parked in the middle of our village and a group of unknown men running around. So, that’s my picture, I don’t know whether that’s the full picture or not.

She added:

I don’t know how he knows what picture I’ve got, I’ve never met him. Literally nobody in any sort of official capacity has been in touch with me or anyone else in the village, no follow up at all, even now, from the police who had my number when I reported it to 999, so it’s just very odd.

Donald Trump suggested on Sunday that authorities already had the suspects under investigation. Asked about these comments, the farmer told reporters: “I think that’s wonderful, but perhaps they could have kept a closer tab on them.”