New footage appears to show a white van travelling towards RAF Fairford just hours before five arrests were made on suspicion of an alleged terror plot. The footage was captured on a resident’s doorbell camera less than a mile from the airbase, which is used by the US Air Force for combat operations.
The van appears to be heading in the direction of the RAF site at around 11:15pm on Saturday, less than two hours before three suspicious vans were seen nearby. Police in Gloucestershire arrested five men in Whelford at around 12:45am on Sunday, September 27, after the bomb squad was alerted to assess three vans spotted by a farmer who called 999 as she returned from a party.
Resident's Account of the Footage
The resident who found the latest footage told The Sun: “I had a look at our security cameras and found this at about 11:15pm on Saturday night. I am pretty shocked because it’s unusual for a large white van like that to be going along our road at that time of night. It also looks like the ones pictured in other news footage.”
The head of UK Counter Terrorism Policing, Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, said the five British suspects were released on bail under "stringent conditions" on Monday. Taylor said they "absolutely remain under investigation as we explore multiple lines of inquiry".
Suspects and Investigation Details
The suspects were 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. A major incident was declared after three vans were spotted in the area, and residents were told to evacuate.
Residents evacuated from about 85 households were able to return home on Monday. It was understood that the material found was not viable explosives, but police have said the investigation is continuing. After a Cobra meeting chaired by Andy Burnham on Monday, Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said the decisions around bail were operational matters for the police and prosecutors.
