This is the dramatic WhatsApp message a hero farmer sent to neighbours after she confronted and scattered a suspected Iranian terror cell near RAF Fairford.
The text was sent by the woman in her 50s after she came across the suspected terrorists close to her home in picturesque Whelford, Gloucestershire.
The message, posted in the village WhatsApp group, read: ‘If anyone is awake… something very odd is going on in the village.
‘The road by the village hall is blocked by three white vans and we saw a group of masked men. I’ve called the police to report it.’
Today the farmer laid into Wes Streeting after he said she only had ‘a partial picture’ of the operation – and revealed police are yet to speak to her.
It came as Counter Terrorism Policing officers revealed that the five men arrested are all British nationals from London, aged between 23 and 25.
Iran ‘categorically rejects’ it had any involvement in the suspected RAF Fairford bomb plot, its London embassy later said in a statement.
The farmer, who wants to remain anonymous, was driving home from a party when she encountered three suspicious vans in the village in the early hours of Sunday morning. Five men were later arrested at the scene.
Amid her claims that the police and security services ‘dropped the ball’, one source insisted she was not the only person to raise the alarm and that officers were already on their way to the scene.
The woman sent her WhatsApp message at 1.49am on Sunday, less than 10 minutes after coming across the three white vans parked in the darkness. Men in balaclavas ran off towards woodland, she said.
The WhatsApp message and picture of the vans believed to contain explosives outside RAF Fairford
Five men were pictured as police arrested them on terror charges near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. They are all British, from London, and in their 20s, police said today
She told how she first rang 101 at 1.36am, but gave up after spending four minutes on hold trying to connect to an operator.
She then rang 999 at 1.40am, describing it as a ‘really hard’ call.
She said: ‘I didn’t really know where to start because I felt a bit of a wally.
‘They asked for the ‘what three words’ of the location of the vans, so I gave that to them.’
The woman then posted her message on the WhatsApp group alerting locals to the terrifying scene unfolding.
She then rang the MoD emergency line at 1.51am, but nobody answered the phone.
Worryingly, the farmer claimed she saw more ‘Middle Eastern-looking’ suspects fleeing the scene than the five men later arrested.
Wes Streeting today heavily suggested that police and security services were aware while President Trump said: ‘We know all about them.’
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.’
But a new update from Counter-Terrorism Policing headquarters this lunchtime repeated an earlier police statement that the five suspects were arrested in Whelford on Sunday morning, ‘following reports of three vehicles travelling towards the airbase at 12.45am‘.
In an interview this lunchtime, the farmer denied that she was a hero and said: ‘To be honest, that’s why I want to be anonymous. It’s not really about that….I’d like to think, if you’d seen what I saw, would have done exactly the same.’
The farmer, who is in her 50s, added: ‘I think, if any of you speak to anyone who lives in this area, we’re all very used to living next to an airbase and it waxes and wanes in terms of how busy it is.
‘So, generally, I think people liked knowing that the base is there. I used to honestly think it’s so safe living in Whelford, because the base is there and they’re keeping an eye on things. But I think perhaps we’re all a little bit naive about that.
‘Who knew that a farmer would have to roll their sleeves up and report the activity?’
The suspects, all aged between 23 and 25, were held outside the Gloucestershire base and stripped amid fears they were wearing suicide belts in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Elite SAS troops were reportedly deployed to the site from Hereford, sources said.
Police have said a cordon remains in place around RAF Fairford today and that overnight searches linked to the arrests had produced ‘multiple new lines of enquiry’.
The five men were arrested under the Explosives Act and then on Terrorism charges. Three are from the London borough of Westminster, one is from Camden and the fifth is from Willesden.
The suspects remain in custody and can be questioned for up to 14 days under UK anti-terrorism laws.
Counter Terrorism Policing’s Senior National Coordinator, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, said: ‘This is a hugely complex and large-scale operation involving local and national policing, the MoD and local agencies, which are working together to progress the investigation and support 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 interests of national security and, most importantly, 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 might face.
‘I am very aware of the levels of speculation about the motivation behind this incident and the geopolitical questions being raised. However, I ask that Counter Terrorism Policing be given the space at this time to carry out its work carefully and thoroughly.’
The farmer said she thought the vans were suspicious because a phone number and lettering on the back of the vehicles appeared to be fake. A farmer met them and they fled
MI5 and counter-terrorism police are scrambling to establish who was behind the suspected bomb plot after arresting five men believed to have been on the verge of carrying out a ‘very big attack’, sources said.
However, suggestions that UK authorities had advance notice of the plot were dismissed, with Whitehall sources insisting the arrests were not pre-planned despite comments by President Trump and Defence Secretary Wes Streeting that appeared to suggest otherwise.
Mr Streeting today praised the farmer’s quick thinking and public spirit, but insisted that she had only a ‘partial picture’ of events, declining to reveal further details.
He said: ‘She has done exactly what we would hope that someone in that extraordinary situation would do, and 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.’
He was asked about why a MoD 24/7 hotline for locals to report security concerns at Fairford was not answered when the farmer called yesterday. Mr Streeting said he could not comment due to the ‘live investigation’ into the incident.
But he again thanked police and the security services for their response, adding that the UK must not be ‘cowed by sabre-rattling from Iran’ or allow the country to ‘dictate our foreign policy’ while stressing it was ‘too early to attribute background aims’.
Donald Trump appeared to nod when asked by reporters last night whether the suspects were migrants. However, he did not answer directly, saying only: ‘We know all about them.’
The farmer said she was astonished to have been the person who raised the alarm, despite President Trump’s claim that the group were known to authorities and under surveillance.
One resident said of the local farmer: ‘She is a hero. She has almost certainly prevented a terror attack.’
The ‘masked’ men were later filmed shirtless amid reports they may have been on a suicide mission armed with explosive vests, allegedly targeting a fleet of US B-1 Lancer bombers based at Fairford.
