One of the five men arrested near RAF Fairford as part of a terror investigation that prompted fears of an Iran-backed plot called the police to report the incident, it has emerged.
The call from the man, in his 20s and from London, was one reason armed police were scrambled to arrest the men, who were with three vans close to the military base used by the US in its attacks on Iran.
The Guardian understands that police first on the scene found several barrels in the vans, one of which contained petrol, while the others were empty.
An Iranian link to the increasingly bizarre events in the Gloucestershire countryside over the weekend is seen as increasingly likely, as the police and security services investigation continues. Senior US politicians, including President Donald Trump, have expressed surprise that the suspects were released on bail.
It was revealed on Sunday that a farmer driving home from a party at around 1am on Sunday had spotted the men and vans, and called 999. But why one of the suspects themselves called police is another strand of the complex investigation.
News of the call to police by one of the suspects was first reported by the Times.
A statement earlier from Britain’s head of counter-terrorism police hinted that officers swooped on the rural location for several reasons. Assistant commissioner Laurence Taylor said: “A police response was activated in the early hours of Sunday morning due to a range of information received, including a call from a member of the public about several vehicles acting suspiciously close to RAF Fairford.”
The mounting view among investigators that Iran was involved was a key reason for Andy Burnham’s decision to call a meeting of Cobra, the government’s crisis committee, on Monday, which was attended by senior police and security officials.
Ministers have been briefed that Iran has various reasons for hiring proxies, who sometimes are unwitting, to carry out acts that aim to eat up resources and create chaos.
The suspects were first arrested on explosives charges and then later for preparing acts of terrorism. The decision on Monday to bail the men came after examination of what was found in the vans, and searches of addresses linked to them across London, all of which found no evidence of a viable device.
Taylor said of the vans: “Those vehicles have been subject to extensive examination, with the support of military assets and forensic experts, and we can confirm that no improvised explosive devices were found. However, a quantity of petrol was recovered.”
Counter-terrorism police are leading the investigation, which is trying to establish why the five men, all British nationals from London, were in the Gloucestershire countryside, close to a sensitive site in the dead of night.
The vans were marked by the logo of a legitimate fuel transit company that later denied ownership of the vehicles.
Taylor defended the decision to bail the suspects, saying: “Yesterday we released the five men on police bail. They remain under investigation and must adhere to strict conditions while we continue our work. The safety of the public is at the forefront of our investigative decision-making, and this was certainly the case yesterday.
“I understand why this development will have come as a surprise to many, but I’d like to reiterate that it was an investigative decision, and one which is grounded in experience and careful consideration of policing powers.”
Residents were returning home on Tuesday after spending days evacuated from their village.
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, claimed the events were the work of a “foreign actor” but did not provide further details. He said “a lot of people are disturbed” after the release of the suspects from custody. Trump had earlier said he was “surprised” the group had been freed.
Speculation has been growing about a connection between the weekend’s incident and Iran. On Monday Taylor said he knew there was “significant interest in whether the current geopolitical context has a bearing on this incident”.
He added: “But be assured, we are considering this from every possible angle, including that this may be actively committed by proxies or individuals either knowingly or unknowingly working on behalf of a foreign state.”
In March the British government gave the US permission to use the base for “specific defensive operations into Iran”.
The Iranian embassy in London has said it “categorically rejects and strongly condemns the recent unfounded and malicious speculations” of Iranian involvement.
Eighty-five households were forced to decamp to a leisure centre on Sunday as the bomb squad and counter-terror police descended on the village of Whelford, where the men were arrested.
Mark Richings, a butcher in Fairford, told the Press Association (PA): “There’s no change in here and we just got on with it as normal. We are a bit quieter today, but everybody seems to be OK, and we are having a bit of a chat about it.
“We just carried on as normal. We have enough to do to occupy our minds. If anything did happen, there isn’t a lot we could have done about it.”
Some of the evacuated residents were able to stay with families, about 60 people received support from a Cotswold district council rest centre in Cirencester and 28 people were accommodated overnight in hotels.
Father Michael Robertson, the priest at the nearby St Thomas Catholic church, told PA: “A lot of parishioners didn’t think they could get to church. Those that came were worried but perfectly happy with the situation.
“In fact, quite a lot of Americans who have deployed here actually come to mass and some of the permanently deployed Americans are full members of the parish. We’re quite contented with the situation generally. Obviously, the disruption upsets people.”
Additional reporting by Jamie Grierson
