U.K. counter-terrorism force investigating 'major incident' near base used by U.S. Air Force - National Post

U.K. counter-terrorism police are investigating an incident near the RAF Fairford base where a "major incident" occurred Sunday. Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS /AFP via Getty ImagesArticle contentBritish counter-terrorism police were Sunday probing “a major” incident near a base used by the U.S. air force after arresting five men on suspicion of “preparing a terrorist act,” police said.

Armed officers detained the group in the early hours after a call to emergency services about three “suspicious vehicles which appeared to be travelling towards the air base,” London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters they had been “looking to do big damage” at the Royal Air Force (RAF) Fairford air base in Gloucestershire, southwest England.

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“We had them under view for a long time, and we got them,” he said, adding the U.S. and U.K. had been working together on the incident.

A local resident who said it was known locally that the base was on lockdown due to a “terror threat” alerted emergency services after seeing three vans blocking the road and a large group of men wearing hoods and balaclavas.

She told the PA news agency she found it “astonishing” it had been effectively down to a “plucky amateur” spotting unusual activity to raise the alarm.

Some 85 households in the nearby village of Whelford were advised to evacuate and army bomb disposal experts called in to examine three large white vans stopped on a rural road.

“Counter Terrorism Policing can now confirm they are leading an investigation into an incident which took place overnight near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire,” the Met statement added.

Broadcast aerial footage showed a bomb disposal robot moving around the vans, two of which had their rear doors open.

Police believed the incident had been “contained” and a 400-metre (1,300 feet) cordon had been put in place.