'Are there more out there?' Farmer eyewitness insists she saw 'eight to ten' RAF bomb suspects despite Streeting saying situation is ‘contained’
The farmer claimed police "had dropped the ball” and that “a plucky amateur shouldn’t be spotting an unusual bit of activity at 1am when the air base is on high alert
A farmer who disrupted an alleged terror plot near RAF Fairford in the early hours of Sunday has doubled down on claims she saw "more than five suspects".
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The Whelford resident, who has asked not be identified, was driving home from a party in the early hours of Sunday when she found three white vans blocking both the road and the entrance to her farm.
The woman said she was forced to turn her car around - before seeing a group of men in dark clothing, some wearing hoods and balaclavas, running through nearby fields and towards the airbase.
She has now maintained her assertion that she saw more than five suspects, despite Wes Streeting's claim this morning that the investigation was contained.
The farmer told LBC: "It's such a flash moment of seeing them, but there was definitely more than five.
"We think maybe between eight and ten of them were there at that point, and a lot of them would have their faces covered."
Read more: Five arrested over RAF base 'bomb plot' are all British men from London and aged in their 20s
It comes after the defence secretary said on Monday the farmer has only “a partial picture” of the situation.
Mr Streeting said: “Thank you to that member of the public. She has done exactly what we would hope that someone in that extraordinary situation would do.
“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 but I do want to emphasise my thanks to the police and the security services because their work takes place often unsung, unreported, for good reason.”
Hitting out at Mr Streeting's remarks, the farmer said: "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, or I'm not a nosy neighbour. I was trying to go mind my own business.
"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."
Five men were arrested on suspicion of explosives offences and preparing a terrorist act, with counter-terrorism police leading the investigation.
They are all British nationals from London and aged in their 20s, Counter Terrorism Policing said.
Three of the men arrested are aged 24, from Camden, Westminster and Willesden. The others are 23 and 25, both from Westminster.
The Whelford resident said she was driving home from a party in the early hours of Sunday when she found three white vans blocking both the road and the entrance to her farm.
She said: “We were aware that RAF Fairford was operating at a high security level and that civilian staff had been evacuated.
“We had noticed some activity from what I assumed were plain-clothed police officers for the previous few days, so initially I thought perhaps this was more of the same.”
The woman said she was forced to turn her car around - before seeing a group of men in dark clothing, some wearing hoods and balaclavas, running through nearby fields and towards the airbase.
“I then realised that something highly unusual was taking place,” she said.
The farmer said she called 999 at 1.36am after failing to get through to Ministry of Defence Police.
"Within 10 minutes, the village was full of armed police," she added.
The farmer said she believed her arrival had unsettled the men.
“They would have seen the bright headlights, probably thought we were the police and panicked," she said.
“It would appear that by doing so I just derailed whatever they were planning.”
She added: “I think it was pure luck that I arrived in the village at a similar time to the vans.
“I am absolutely staggered that it was left to me, as a member of the public, to see and report this. The airbase were operating a roadblock close to the entrance to the base, but not on any of the other roads,” she said.
“We assumed someone would be monitoring the roads around the base perimeter and taking regular patrols in the village.
“Clearly, this was not happening, and I believe that my 999 call foiled whatever plans they had.”
She continued: “The vans were within metres of houses, and those people were left unaware, apart from the fact that I sent a message to our village WhatsApp group, hoping that some people would be awake and could make sure their doors were locked.”
Recalling the encounter, she said: “My impression was that they were fit and young. They were all wearing similar dark clothes.“
You don’t see masked men running around at half one in the morning in the countryside near a secure air base and not have concerns.”
She said: “A plucky amateur shouldn’t be spotting an unusual bit of activity at 1am when the air base is on high alert.
“I think it’s absolutely astonishing.”