This is the dramatic WhatsApp message a hero farmer sent to neighbours after she confronted and scattered a suspected Iranian terror cell near RAF Fairford.

The text was sent by the woman in her 50s after she came across the suspected terrorists close to her home in picturesque Whelford, Gloucestershire.

The message, posted in the village WhatsApp group, read: ‘If anyone is awake… something very odd is going on in the village.

‘The road by the village hall is blocked by three white vans and we saw a group of masked men. I’ve called the police to report it.’

Today the farmer laid into Wes Streeting after he said she only had ‘a partial picture’ of the operation – and revealed police are yet to speak to her.

It came as Counter Terrorism Policing officers revealed that the five men arrested are all British nationals from London, aged between 23 and 25.

The farmer, who wants to remain anonymous, was driving home from a party when she encountered three suspicious vans in the village in the early hours of Sunday morning. Five men were later arrested at the scene.

Amid her claims that the police and security services ‘dropped the ball’, one source insisted she was not the only person to raise the alarm and that officers were already on their way to the scene.

The woman sent her WhatsApp message at 1.49am on Sunday, less than 10 minutes after coming across the three white vans parked in the darkness. Men in balaclavas ran off towards woodland, she said.

The WhatsApp message and picture of the vans believed to contain explosives outside RAF Fairford

Five men were pictured as police arrested them on terror charges near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. They are all British, from London, and in their 20s, police said today

She told how she first rang 101 at 1.36am, but gave up after spending four minutes on hold trying to connect to an operator.

She then rang 999 at 1.40am, describing it as a ‘really hard’ call.

She said: ‘I didn’t really know where to start because I felt a bit of a wally.

‘They asked for the ‘what three words’ of the location of the vans, so I gave that to them.’

The woman then posted her message on the WhatsApp group alerting locals to the terrifying scene unfolding.

She then rang the MoD emergency line at 1.51am, but nobody answered the phone.

Worryingly, the farmer claimed she saw more ‘Middle Eastern-looking’ suspects fleeing the scene than the five men later arrested. 

Wes Streeting today heavily suggested that police and security services were aware while President Trump said: ‘We know all about them.’

She told reporters: ‘I know it’s been said by some of the higher ups today that I didn’t have the full picture, but the picture I had was three extremely unusual vehicles parked in the middle of our village and a group of unknown men running around.

‘So, that’s my picture, I don’t know whether that’s the full picture or not.’

She added: ‘I don’t know how he knows what picture I’ve got, I’ve never met him. Literally nobody in any sort of official capacity has been in touch with me or anyone else in the village, no follow up at all, even now, from the police who had my number when I reported it to 999, so it’s just very odd.’

But a new update from Counter-Terrorism Policing headquarters this lunchtime repeated an earlier police statement that the five suspects were arrested in Whelford on Sunday morning, ‘following reports of three vehicles travelling towards the airbase at 12.45am’.

In an interview this lunchtime, the farmer denied that she was a hero and said: ‘To be honest, that’s why I want to be anonymous. It’s not really about that….I’d like to think, if you’d seen what I saw, would have done exactly the same.’

The farmer, who is in her 50s, added: ‘I think, if any of you speak to anyone who lives in this area, we’re all very used to living next to an airbase and it waxes and wanes in terms of how busy it is.

‘So, generally, I think people liked knowing that the base is there. I used to honestly think it’s so safe living in Whelford, because the base is there and they’re keeping an eye on things. But I think perhaps we’re all a little bit naive about that.

‘Who knew that a farmer would have to roll their sleeves up and report the activity?’

The suspects, all aged between 23 and 25, were held outside the Gloucestershire base and stripped amid fears they were wearing suicide belts in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Elite SAS troops were reportedly deployed to the site from Hereford, sources said. 

Police have said a cordon remains in place around RAF Fairford today and that overnight searches linked to the arrests had produced ‘multiple new lines of enquiry’.

The five men were arrested under the Explosives Act and then on Terrorism charges. Three are from the London borough of Westminster, one is from Camden and the fifth is from Willesden.

The suspects remain in custody and can be questioned for up to 14 days under UK anti-terrorism laws.

Counter Terrorism Policing’s Senior National Coordinator, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, said: ‘This is a hugely complex and large-scale operation involving local and national policing, the MoD and local agencies, which are working together to progress the investigation and support the community.

‘I know this has been incredibly disruptive for local people, but I’d like to reassure them that our activity is in the interests of national security and, most importantly, their own safety.

‘I’d also like to thank the emergency services for their response, including the armed officers who first attended the scene not knowing what they might face.

‘I am very aware of the levels of speculation about the motivation behind this incident and the geopolitical questions being raised. However, I ask that Counter Terrorism Policing be given the space at this time to carry out its work carefully and thoroughly.’

Britain’s security services are on high alert today amid fears of further Iranian terror plots on UK soil.

The farmer said she thought the vans were suspicious because a phone number and lettering on the back of the vehicles appeared to be fake. A farmer met them and they fled

MI5 and counter-terrorism police are scrambling to establish who was behind the suspected bomb plot after arresting five men believed to have been on the verge of carrying out a ‘very big attack’, sources said.

However, suggestions that UK authorities had advance notice of the plot were dismissed, with Whitehall sources insisting the arrests were not pre-planned despite comments by President Trump and Defence Secretary Wes Streeting that appeared to suggest otherwise.

Mr Streeting today praised the farmer’s quick thinking and public spirit, but insisted that she had only a ‘partial picture’ of events, declining to reveal further details.

He said: ‘She has done exactly what we would hope that someone in that extraordinary situation would do, and 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.’

He was asked about why a MoD 24/7 hotline for locals to report security concerns at Fairford was not answered when the farmer called yesterday. Mr Streeting said he could not comment due to the ‘live investigation’ into the incident.

But he again thanked police and the security services for their response, adding that the UK must not be ‘cowed by sabre-rattling from Iran’ or allow the country to ‘dictate our foreign policy’ while stressing it was ‘too early to attribute background aims’.

Donald Trump appeared to nod when asked by reporters last night whether the suspects were migrants. However, he did not answer directly, saying only: ‘We know all about them.’ 

The farmer said she was astonished to have been the person who raised the alarm, despite President Trump’s claim that the group were known to authorities and under surveillance.

One resident said of the local farmer: ‘She is a hero. She has almost certainly prevented a terror attack.’ 

Wes Streeting (pictured today) claimed the hero farmer who foiled an attack on RAF base used by US bombers ‘only has a partial picture’ of the security operation

The ‘masked’ men were later filmed shirtless amid reports they may have been on a suicide mission armed with explosive vests, allegedly targeting a fleet of US B-1 Lancer bombers based at Fairford.

The farmer, who has not been named, was forced to stop when she found three white vans blocking the road.

As the men fled in different directions, she called 999 before sending a message to the local WhatsApp group in the village of Whelford.

Within 25 minutes, the five suspects had been rounded up and arrested by armed counter-terrorism officers, who are now investigating whether the alleged plot was linked to Iran.

Last night as he landed back in Washington from Illinois, President Trump hailed US-UK co-operation to foil the attack – and insisted that the group were known to police and were ‘looking to do big damage’ to US forces.

When asked if the US knew about the attack, he said: ‘We know all about them. You’ll be hearing about it very soon. We caught them.’

Earlier in the day he said: ‘It was fantastic. Working with Britain, it was an amazing job. We had them under investigation. They were looking to do big damage to our fort, and working with the British worked out great. 

‘It may have been Scotland Yard, I don’t know. We worked with a lot of them. We had them under view for a long time, and we got them. Thank you.’

RAF Fairford was used by the United States Air Force for operations against Iran. The base, which is already on high alert and had ramped up security in recent weeks, is less than a mile from the centre of the village.

Donald Trump appeared to nod to reporters when asked if the men arrested were migrants to the UK last night – but did not answer the question  

The group were shirtless and handcuffed, suggesting police suspected they may be wearing suicide vests

Minutes after the farmer’s call, armed police descended on the quiet Cotswolds village of Whelford – home to just 100 – and arrested five men. Dramatic video and pictures from the scene show the young, shirtless men sitting on the ground – arms handcuffed behind them.

The woman, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals, said she believed her headlights had startled the men, prompting them to try to flee.

She told the Sun: ‘The worst thing is that we saw more than five people and they kept saying they arrested five. They had the helicopters searching.’

It comes as Temporary Chief Constable for Gloucestershire Police, Maggie Blyth, has indicated the force is not looking for anybody else in connection with the incident. 

The farmer revealed she had been driving along a quiet lane through the village while her husband was sleeping beside her as she prepared to drop a friend home.

She said the vans struck her as being suspicious because a phone number and lettering on the back of the vehicles appeared to be fake.

She added: ‘I just thought what the hell are they doing… I saw a group of Middle Eastern–looking young guys running off through the trees. Some of them had masks or balaclavas on, and they all scattered ahead of us as we drove back past.

‘Some of them ran into the fields, and some of them turned to run towards the air base. We realised this was something pretty serious.

US Air Force bomberson the tarmac at RAF Fairford base in Fairford today

Three white vans have been probed by a wheeled robot attached to the bomb squad after five men were arrested following a ‘foiled terror plot’ on RAF Fairford 

‘We knew the air base had a credible threat of a terrorist attack before last night. So as soon as I saw them I was worried.

‘I mean, 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.

‘It’s bloody preposterous that they weren’t on it and I had to phone up. I’d like to think it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing.’

The woman said she hoped the police ‘sort themselves out and this doesn’t happen to us again’ – insisting there would be some ‘red faces in the highest levels of command at Fairford anyway’. 

One of the white vans was labelled ‘FUEL 2YOU’ in red lettering, with a phone number that was one digit short.

A company with the same name said it had two vans and they were both in London yesterday. After the men were detained a 400m cordon was thrown up around the vehicles – which appeared to have been laden with barrels – while police went door to door, evacuating the 85 homes in the village.

Residents told how they were initially woken by a helicopter at 1am and then again by bangs on the door before being taken away in their pyjamas and dressing gowns to a leisure centre.

Jo, who did not want to give her surname, has lived in Whelford for 18 years. She said she was evacuated from her home at around 7am, adding: ‘We were asleep and they were just banging on our door. They said it was a critical incident and we’ve got to leave straight away, and they basically wouldn’t leave the doorstep until we left.

‘We just had to throw our clothes on and come. We didn’t know anything. (The police) literally waited (at the door). I didn’t even brush my teeth.’

Another Whelford resident said they were woken by a helicopter at 2am. They were then woken again at 6.30am by police officers banging on their bedroom window telling them they needed to evacuate. The local said: ‘We’d gone to bed as normal around 10pm and heard the helicopter above the house at 2ish.

Heavily-armed personnel are seen at the main entrance to RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire

‘You get used to aircraft living so close to the base, but not at that time in the early hours. So we knew something was happening.

‘We sleep downstairs and heard a banging on the window at 6.30am. We must have slept through the doorbell.

‘It was the police, they were armed and in masks. They very calmly said there was a ‘serious incident’ and that we needed to leave for our own safety.

‘We grabbed some things and headed to the leisure centre. We haven’t been told when we can go back. It’s been a very scary day.’

Those evacuated were taken to Cirencester Leisure Centre – ten miles away – where areas are also being set up for people’s cats and dogs.

Two uniformed officers had earlier gone to collect one worried resident’s dog. They dropped off the small black terrier to her in the foyer of the centre.

Julian Tudsbery, who has lived in Whelford for 30 years, said: ‘Evidently, they phoned the airbase police, who didn’t answer the phone. It just rang out so she dialled 999.’

He said he was evacuated at 7am, adding: ‘[The police] were then banging on the door, so I went downstairs in my dressing gown.’