A farmer from Whelford who alerted police to a suspected terror plot at RAF Fairford has claimed she saw up to 10 masked people near the base, as police confirmed five arrested men will be bailed.
The woman, in her 50s, contacted police after spotting three vans blocking a road near the base, which has been used by the US to bomb missile sites in Iran, while returning home from a party. Five British nationals were arrested in the early hours of Sunday on suspicion of explosives offences and later terrorism. The farmer, who dialled 999, now says there were "definitely more than five", estimating she saw between eight and 10 people with faces covered and wearing "slim-fitting clothes".
Strange formation spotted
She was travelling home with her husband and a "young lad" who works for them when she saw 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."
One of the vans had "strange sign writing on it", she said, and initially she believed it belonged to undercover police. She added: "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."
Group of men seen running
After dropping off their employee, the farmers turned around and drove back. "We suddenly saw a large group of men," she said. "Our vehicle is quite similar to the patrol vehicles that they use, and we had our lights on main beam. I think we sort of dazzled them, and they started to run, and some of them ran straight ahead across the road into the field, and some turned and started going down towards Kempsford, which is our next village."
The farmer then tried to call the MoD police, but the phone "just rang and rang and rang, and no one answered", before she called 101 and was put on hold. She phoned 999 at 01:36am and messaged the village WhatsApp group. "Literally within five minutes of that, everything sort of kicked off, and armed police arrived, the guys were arrested," she said. "The helicopter was up searching, probably for a couple of hours and there was a lot of shouting."
Lack of follow-up criticised
She added: "The strange thing is, there was no kind of follow up. The police didn't ring me, they had all my details, they didn’t phone me back, and nobody told anyone in the village what was going on apart from me. It wasn’t until probably half six in the morning when they suddenly decide to evacuate people. Meanwhile, those vans were right in the middle of the village, next to everyone’s houses and no one did anything."
Responding to her account, Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said earlier on Monday that she only had "a partial picture" of the situation. The farmer 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."
Gloucestershire Assistant Chief Constable Richard Ocone previously said a report relating to "three suspicious vehicles" travelling towards the base had been received at 12.45am. The farmer said: "I think I’d like a bit of acknowledgement that there was a mess-up, instead of the silly talking about parts of the story. I am a real person, I’m not an undercover agent, I’m not a nosy neighbour. I think there needs to be an acknowledgement about what actually did happen and what the sequence of events are, because that’s the only way anyone can learn how to manage it going forward. If they genuinely had a call about those vans at quarter to one, what happened in the three-quarters of an hour between that and me stumbling upon them in the village?"
Five men released on bail
In an update, the UK's counter terrorism policing head Lawrence Taylor said police are still investigating whether a foreign state was behind the suspected attacks. The five men arrested in the early hours of Sunday, British nationals from London, have been released on bail pending further enquiries. Speaking at a press conference at New Scotland Yard, Mr Taylor said the decision to release the five on bail came after "extensive interviews and inquiries".
He said: "To be very clear, this does not mean that the investigation is over. They are subject to stringent conditions on their movement and contact with others. They absolutely remain under investigation as we explore multiple lines of inquiry." He added that police realise there is "significant interest in whether the current geopolitical context has a bearing on this incident". He said: "At counter-terrorism policing, we are working within this context every single day, and at this stage, we are keeping an open mind in this investigation. We have, as you would expect, ensured that our protective security advice and posture remain commensurate to the threat. But be assured, we are considering this from every possible angle, including that this may be actively committed by proxies or individuals, either knowingly or unknowingly, working on behalf of a foreign state."
