Heavy vehicles appeared at all gates; concrete walls behind some entry points
Those living near RAF Fairford had grown accustomed to disturbance from protesters and a heavy police presence since the decision to allow the U.S. Air Force to use the base for attacks on Iran, The Guardian reported. In the weeks before Sunday’s arrests, residents said, security around the base tightened dramatically, with the gates newly barricaded.
“In the prior few weeks they have put heavy, very heavy vehicles across all gates,” one resident told The Guardian. She described them as “very big tractors and things like that” parked behind gates into the base, adding: “So obviously they’re taking security seriously.” The resident said “great big concrete walls” had also been placed behind some gates, including on Dunfield Loop and Whelford Road.
If local people had questioned the necessity of those steps, they may have been persuaded this weekend. In the very early hours of Sunday morning, some in the nearby village of Whelford noticed suspicious activity around three vans parked there, prompting a local WhatsApp group discussion about what to do about the vehicles blocking a lane in the village.
One Whelford resident, named Jason, who declined to give his surname, said they first became aware something was happening overnight at about 1:30 a.m., when people on the chat group started discussing the vans. Julian Tudsbery, who has lived in Whelford for 30 years, said one resident had reported three “suspicious vans” in the village in the early hours of Sunday morning.
“Evidently, they phoned the airbase police, who didn’t answer the phone,” Tudsbery told The Guardian. “It just rang out, so she dialled 999.”
About four and a half hours later, at 6 a.m., police were banging on doors and ordering residents to leave. Tudsbery described the encounter at his own home.
“[The police] were then banging on the door, so I went downstairs in my dressing gown,” Tudsbery said. “There were several police, three police cars in the drive, and they said you need to evacuate, there’s been a major incident, said he couldn’t elaborate.”
Jason, 50, a consultant, said he was evacuated to the leisure centre in Cirencester at 6 a.m. Sunday with his family and 11-week-old puppy, Poppy, and friends who were visiting from London.
“We went to bed,” he said. “It was early the next morning when the doorbell rang. It was the police, asking residents to evacuate as there had been a major incident.”
Jason said earlier on Sunday there were about 40 to 50 people in the leisure centre, ranging from toddlers to elderly villagers, as well as a number of dogs. He said those at the centre had been given no more details than those released publicly by police and had been asked by authorities whether they had anywhere else to stay on Sunday night.
Police later announced that several men had been arrested on suspicion of explosives offences, The Guardian reported. About 30 emergency vehicles were seen in the village, with the army, a bomb squad and counter-terrorism police all investigating at the scene. Explosives experts were seen examining the three vans. A photograph published by The Guardian showed a Tesco grocery delivery vehicle stopped at a roadblock in Fairford.
The Guardian reported that RAF Fairford has come to prominence since March and the beginning of what it described as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. From the perimeter of the base, The Guardian reported, it has been possible to see heavy bombs being loaded onto American aircraft. Fairford’s runway extends almost two miles (3 km) and is reinforced to support heavy bombers such as the B-1 and B-52, which The Guardian reported have been deployed in attacks on Iran and are capable of carrying large payloads, including “bunker buster” bombs.
By Sunday afternoon, the cordon around the village had expanded so far that no one could approach, according to The Guardian. Tudsbery said he hoped he could get home soon; he had left his cat, Misty, behind. It remained unclear when residents would be permitted to return.