U.K. police said Sunday that multiple people had been arrested on suspicion of offenses under the Explosives Act near a U.S. airbase in southwest England.
Gloucestershire Police said the arrests occurred about two miles from RAF Fairford, a base that hosts U.S. Air Force assets. The United States has recently used the installation in operations connected to the war in Iran.
“Several properties are currently being evacuated in the Whelford area after a major incident was declared,” Gloucestershire Police said. “This follows the arrest of several men on suspicion of offenses under the Explosives Act.”
Police stand at a roadblock leading to RAF Fairford after a major incident was declared. Armed officers manned a cordon near the village of Whelford in Gloucestershire, close to RAF Fairford, which is used by the United States Air Force. Picture date: Sunday, September 27, 2026. (Photo by Ben Birchall/PA Images via Getty Images)
Police said the Army’s specialist explosive ordnance disposal team was examining several vehicles.
Authorities did not identify the suspects or say how many people had been detained.
British Defense Secretary Wes Streeting said on X that the situation was “being dealt with.”
A B-1 bomber sits at RAF Fairford on July 25, 2026, in Fairford, England. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has called RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire a “legitimate target” after U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers used the British base to launch defensive strikes against Iranian military targets. (Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)
“The Prime Minister is being kept updated on the incident in Gloucestershire,” the U.K. Defense Ministry said in a separate statement.
“We are grateful to the emergency services, who have acted quickly to detain several suspects and introduce measures to protect the community,” the statement said.
“It would be inappropriate to comment further while investigations are ongoing,” the ministry added.
The incident occurred about a month after Iran-linked hackers were suspected of taking a small British power generator offline for several days this summer.
The British outage came weeks after hackers targeted more than 30 community water systems in Minnesota, gaining access to technology used to remotely monitor and control pumps and other equipment. Minnesota officials have not publicly assigned blame for those attacks. However, several news organizations, citing U.S. officials and a leaked industry threat-sharing memo, reported that Iran was the likely source.
U.S. military personnel unload equipment from a U.S. Air Force C-5 Galaxy at RAF Fairford in southwest England on March 6, 2026. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer approved Washington’s use of bases at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and RAF Fairford in southwest England to strike Iranian missile sites after Iran retaliated against several Gulf countries. (Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)
Federal agencies have also warned that Iran-affiliated actors have targeted similar industrial devices in the water, energy and government sectors, attempting to access software that controls them. The activity has already led to operational disruptions and financial losses.
