Officials from London and Donald Trump say that the authorities had been aware for some time of the terrorist attack being prepared against a British military base. However, the English press notes that the police only intervened on the spot after a local woman called the police to report that she had seen three vans and suspicious people in the area.
The UK security services had advance information about the men arrested in connection with an alleged bomb attack against a base of the Royal Air Force (RAF) used by the American military, Wes Streeting, the Defense Secretary, stated on Monday.
He made these statements a day after five men were arrested on terrorism charges, with police finding explosives in three vans parked a few minutes away from the RAF Fairford base in Gloucestershire, which hosts missions of the American air forces against Iran.
The British press wrote that the authorities were alerted by a woman from the area, who was driving near the base in the early hours of Sunday, noticed the vans and men behaving unusually and called 999.
Investigators were examining the materials found in vans, the initial conclusion being that they corresponded to improvised explosive devices, writes The Guardian, which also suggests that one of the leads is that Iran could be behind the plot.
“It seems that someone has messed up”
In the statements given to the BBC, the local woman who called the police said she was returning home late from a party, but when she arrived at her farm, she found the access lane and road blocked by three white vans.
Believing that this was related to the security operations at RAF Fairford base, she turned the car around, but then saw a group of men with hoods and masks, who ran away when they saw her.
Suspicious, she called the Ministry of Defense police and then dialed 999.