RAF Fairford live updates: Five men arrested over suspected bomb plot are UK nationals from London, say counter terror police

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.”

Speaking at the Labour party conference in Liverpool, the defence secretary, Wes Streeting, said he could not give further details about the RAF Fairford incident because there is a live police investigation.

However, he used his speech to stress that the UK-US relationship is “the closest alliance” of any two countries in the world, adding the two nations will always “stand together” against those who wish to cause harm.

“What we saw yesterday from our security services, our armed forces and our police was just a small glimpse of the extraordinary work they do every day around the clock and around the world, behind the scenes and without recognition to keep our country safe,” Streeting said.

Although significant tensions still exist, the relationship between the Trump administration and Downing Street has improved since Andy Burnham became prime minister, as shown in the two leaders’ relatively warm first face-to-face meeting last week at the UN general assembly in New York.

The so-called special relationship had soured under Keir Starmer’s premiership over several issues, including the UK’s decision to give up sovereignty of the Chagos Islands and an initial refusal by Starmer to allow the use of RAF bases for bombing Iran.

We would like to speak to people affected by the incident. Were you evacuated? What has been your experience? If you would like to get in touch – perhaps to share an eyewitness account or news tip – then please follow the instructions in our callout here:

Addressing the Labour party conference in Liverpool, the foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, said the incident near RAF Fairford is a reminder of the “threats” the UK faces.

“We will always stand up for our security against those who would do us harm,” he told delegates, as he thanked the armed forces, security services and police for their work.

We don’t yet know the nationalities or ages of the five suspects who were arrested, their motivations/exact plans or if anybody else was involved in the suspected plot. We are expecting an update from the police later today that could answer some of these questions.

In Fairford, police ‌have imposed a 400m ​cordon around the air base and ​evacuated about residents from 85 homes while the investigation into the major incident continues.

Here are some of the latest images being sent to us over the newswires from the scene:

Speaking to reporters yesterday, the US president, Donald Trump, praised British law enforcement for their efforts, describing “the arrest in the UK” as “fantastic”.

“We had them under investigation. They were looking to do big damage to our fort, and working with the British worked out great,” he said.

Trump’s comments suggest that the suspects had been under careful surveillance for a long time. But his remarks are undermined by the fact the men were able to get so close to RAF Fairford, with the suspected plot only appearing to be foiled by a member of the public by chance.

The incident comes as the war between the US and Iran limps on. In July, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps noted RAF Fairford’s use by US bombers, warning the UK that “any base used for aggression against Iranian territory constitutes a legitimate target for our forces”.

Counter-terror police and the security services are searching for the motive. The circumstances of the arrest near the base and prior warnings from Tehran leave an Iranian motive high in the investigators’ and government’s thinking.

But sources warn nothing is being ruled out, including a jihadist or other motive, and the UK threat level remains at severe, the second highest, meaning an attack is highly likely.

Whether there was any foreign involvement forms part of the investigation, and Iran’s ministry of intelligence and security has orchestrated attacks overseas before.

Any proven link with Iran would be a dramatic escalation in hostilities between the UK and Tehran. While several recent incidents in the UK have been linked to the Middle-Eastern country, including the antisemitic arson attack on four Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green, the alleged plot at RAF Fairford appears to be significantly more serious.

You can read more on this story from my colleagues Jamie Grierson, Vikram Dodd and Helena Horton here:

The farmer who says she sounded the alarm spoke at length to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning. Here is some of what she said:

I was coming home late from a party. On reaching our farm, I found both the driveway and the road blocked by three white vans… We had noticed some activity from what I assumed were plain-clothed police officers for the previous few days, so initially I thought perhaps this was more of the same.

I had no choice but to turn my vehicle around and return back the way I came. On driving a short distance from the vans, I saw a large group of hooded and masked men. When they saw me, they ran ahead of me, some into the field and some towards the neighbouring village of Kempsford.

I then realised that something highly unusual was taking place. In light of my awareness of a security threat to the base, I immediately called the MoD (Ministry of Defence) police, the phone rang out and they didn’t answer.

At 1.36am I called 999 to report what I had seen. Within 10 minutes, the village was full of armed police. I think it was pure luck that I arrived in the village at a similar time to the vans.

I am absolutely staggered that it was left to me, as a member of the public, to see and report this. The airbase were operating a roadblock close to the entrance to the base, but not on any of the other roads.

But we assumed someone would be monitoring the roads around the base perimeter and taking regular patrols in the village. Clearly, this was not happening, and I believe that my 999 call foiled whatever plans they had.

Even more surprising that, following my call at 1.36am, the police were aware of the presence of the three vans, but didn’t evacuate the village until 6am.

No one from the police has been in touch to ask me anything about it. I think they were hyper-focused and vigilant about the base itself, and had absolutely no regard for our village.

The vans were within metres of houses, and those people were left unaware, apart from the fact that I sent a message to our village WhatsApp group, hoping that some people would be awake and could make sure their doors were locked… I’m just really keen to highlight that it appears someone really dropped the ball on this.

The defence secretary, Wes Streeting, has spoken to the media from the Labour party conference this morning about the incident near RAF Fairford.

Streeting said he was grateful for the vigilance of the members of the public who are thought to have helped alert the emergency services to the suspected terror plot.

He renewed his thanks in particular to the local farmer who rang the police after she reportedly saw “a large group of hooded and masked men” near RAF Fairford early on Sunday morning.

Speaking to the BBC, the farmer said she thinks “someone dropped the ball” by allowing the suspects and their vehicles to get so close to people’s homes.

Streeting told Sky News:

Thank you to that member of the public. She has done exactly what we would hope that someone in that extraordinary situation would do.

I’m really grateful to her – I think she acted, by her own admission, quickly and thoughtfully, and she did the right thing.

With respect, though, she does only have a partial picture. And that’s as far as I wish to go this morning.

The defence secretary also suggested that UK military bases are potential targets for “state-backed actors” looking to inflict “harm” on the country.

Good morning and welcome to our coverage of events at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire as counter-terrorism police investigate whether Iran is behind a suspected bomb plot at the base which is used by the US military to carry out missions in the Middle East.

Five men held near the base early on Sunday were initially detained over explosives offences and then were further arrested later in the day on suspicion of the preparation of a terrorist act.

It came after armed officers found explosives on three vans parked minutes from the base. The suspected plot appears to have been foiled by chance when a local farmer spotted unusual behaviour late at night in the countryside from a group of men and called 999.

Dozens of households in the Cotswolds village of Whelford were subsequently evacuated during the operation and have still not returned to their home. Stay with us for further developments.