A local farmer who alerted police after seeing a group of men near a British airbase on Sunday (September 27), said they reacted "very quickly" once she had finally got through to them by dialling 999, but took hours to follow up with locals. The farmer had initially tried two other non-emergency police numbers and was not able to make contact with the police.

"It wasn't until probably half six in the morning when they suddenly decided to evacuate people, but meanwhile, those vans are right in the middle of the village next to everyone's houses, and no one did anything," the farmer told reporters.

Police said on Monday (September 28) the five men they detained were British nationals from London in their early 20s, and that they were trying to understand a motive.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

Farmer details encounter with men spotted near UK airbase before alerting police

VIDEO SHOWS: ANONYMOUS INTERVIEW WITH FARMER WHO CALLED POLICE / AERIALS SHOWING BOMB DISPOSAL ROBOT AROUND THREE VANS, POLICE AND EMERGENCY SERVICES ON SCENE / POLICE OUTSIDE AIRBASE

RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT

SHOWS: FAIRFORD, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 27, 2026) (BBC – No use UK)(MUTE)

1. AERIAL OF BOMB DISPOSAL ROBOT BETWEEN TWO VANS

2. AERIAL OF THREE PARKED VANS, TWO WITH BACK DOORS OPEN

FAIRFORD, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 28, 2026) (BBC – No use UK)

3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) FARMER (NO NAME GIVEN), SAYING: (SOUNDBITE BEGINS AND ENDS ON SHOT OF FARMER’S HANDS)

“First thing I noticed was there's a vehicle on our farm drive and then I realized there's three of them and they're parked in a really strange formation so you couldn't drive between them on the road and you also couldn't drive up the farm drive. 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.”

FAIRFORD, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 27, 2026) (BBC – No use UK)(MUTE)

4. AERIAL OF HOUSES, VANS ON ROAD

FAIRFORD, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 28, 2026) (BBC – No use UK)

5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) FARMER (NO NAME GIVEN), SAYING: (SOUNDBITE BEGINS AND ENDS ON SHOT OF FARMER’S HANDS)

“As we reached the crossroads there's a phone box and a post box on the crossroads and we suddenly saw a large group of men and they were panicking. I think the reason, well I suppose they were panicking, because anyone saw them, but our vehicle is quite similar to the patrol vehicles that they use and we had our lights on main beam because there wasn't another car. So 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.”

FAIRFORD, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 27, 2026) (BBC – No use UK)(MUTE)

6. AERIAL OF STATIONARY VANS, ONE WITH BACK DOORS OPEN AND BOMB DISPOSAL ROBOT MOVING TOWARDS ONE OF THEM

FAIRFORD, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 28, 2026) (BBC – No use UK)

7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) FARMER (NO NAME GIVEN), SAYING: (SOUNDBITE BEGINS AND ENDS ON SHOT OF FARMER’S ARM)

“It's really hard, it's such a flash moment of seeing them, but there were definitely more than five. We think maybe between eight and ten of them were there at that point and a lot of them were covered, had their faces covered. They were all wearing like, it looked like similar, almost you'd have thought perhaps it was like what they'd been told to wear, quite similar like slim fitting clothes. So then I realized this was probably something a bit more unusual than undercover policemen parked in some vans.”

FAIRFORD, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 28, 2026) (REUTERS – Access all)

8. SIGN READING (English): 'MINISTRY OF DEFENCE / THIS IS A PROHIBITED PLACE WITHIN THE MEANING OF THE OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT - UNAUTHORISED PERSONS ENTERING THE AREA MAY BE ARRESTED AND PROSECUTED'

9. POLICE VEHICLE DRIVING INSIDE AIRBASE/ POLICE OFFICER AND VEHICLE OUTSIDE AIRBASE

FAIRFORD, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 28, 2026) (BBC – No use UK)

10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) FARMER (NO NAME GIVEN), SAYING: (SOUNDBITE BEGINS AND ENDS ON SHOT OF FARMER’S ARM)

“So I tried first thing to do, phone the MOD police and the phone just rang and rang and rang and no one answered. And then I tried, because at that point you still can't really believe your eyes. So I tried phoning the, I think it's 101, the non-emergency police. They didn't answer, it was just put on hold. And I thought, right, well, maybe this is serious enough to warrant 999 because it's really hard to explain. Knowing what we know now isn't the same as what happened to me on that night, because at that point I'd seen some men and I'd seen some vans, but no one was actually doing anything. They could have been people from people go out and about from the base at different times. You know, I didn't really know who they were."

FAIRFORD, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 27, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

11. VARIOUS OF POLICE CORDON NEAR RAF FAIRFORD AIRBASE

FAIRFORD, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 28, 2026) (BBC – No use UK)

12. (SOUNDBITE) (English) FARMER (NO NAME GIVEN), SAYING: (SOUNDBITE BEGINS AND ENDS ON SHOT OF FARMER’S HANDS)

"After I'd come off the phone to 999, I put a message on our village WhatsApp group just saying, because I didn't want people to be scared, I just said just to let you all know something very odd has happened today or tonight in the village and told them what I'd seen. Literally within five minutes of that, everything sort of kicked off and armed police arrived; the guys were arrested. The helicopter was up searching."

FAIRFORD, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 27, 2026) (BBC - No use UK) (MUTE)

13. AERIAL OF POLICE HELICOPTER FLYING

14. AERIAL OF EMERGENCY VEHICLES PARKED

15. AERIAL OF POLICE VEHICLES

FAIRFORD, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 28, 2026) (BBC – No use UK)

16. (SOUNDBITE) (English) FARMER (NO NAME GIVEN), SAYING: (SOUNDBITE BEGINS AND ENDS ON SHOT OF FARMER’S HANDS)

"The strange thing is there was no kind of follow-up, so 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. So it wasn't until probably half six in the morning when they suddenly decided to evacuate people, but meanwhile, those vans are right in the middle of the village next to everyone's houses, and no one did anything."

FAIRFORD, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 28, 2026) (REUTERS – Access all)

17. POLICE OFFICER AND VEHICLE OUTSIDE AIRBASE

FAIRFORD, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 28, 2026) (BBC – No use UK)

18. (SOUNDBITE) (English) FARMER (NO NAME GIVEN), SAYING: (SOUNDBITE BEGINS AND ENDS ON SHOT OF FARMER’S ARM AND HANDS)

"Astonished again, I suppose. I just can't process how that base was on such high alert. And that the men were even there, never mind how many and how many they caught; and they reacted very quickly to the 999 calls, but before that, where were they?"

FAIRFORD, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 28, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

19. VARIOUS OF ARMED POLICE NEAR FAIRFORD AIRBASE