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Five men are in British police custody on suspicion of plotting a terrorist act after being arrested early Sunday near a U.K. air base that is used by the U.S. military, authorities there said.
Hours later at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, President Donald Trump said U.S. and U.K. authorities were working together on the investigation. He said he believed the individuals were "looking to do big damage" to the base.
The men were arrested in the Whelford area of Gloucestershire, England, which is about two miles away from Royal Air Force Fairford, a base from which the U.S. Air Force has flown long-range heavy bombing missions during the Iran war.
"We are in the early stages of an investigation, and five men remain in custody," said Vicki Evans, counterterrorism policing senior national coordinator at London's Metropolitan Police.
The United Kingdom's Counter Terrorism Policing network, which is leading the investigation, said in a statement that the five men were arrested on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act and of violating Britain's Explosives Act.
The suspects were taken into custody after a caller notified police of three suspicious vehicles traveling toward the base just after midnight local time on Sunday, according to Assistant Chief Constable Richard Ocone, a local police official who briefed reporters.
"Armed officers responded and subsequently arrested five men in the Welford area on suspicion of committing offenses under the Explosives Act. The men were taken into custody, where they remain," he said.
Aerial footage from Sky News, a British news channel, shows three white vehicles resembling vans stopped on the road in a wooded area.
Ocone said that a 400-meter barrier has been put in place around the vehicles while an explosive ordnance disposal unit examines them. Dozens of residential homes in the area have been evacuated as a precaution while police investigate.
Trump said the suspects had been on the radar of law enforcement before their arrests.
"Working with Britain it was an amazing job. We had them under investigation," he said. "We had them under view for a long time, and we got them."
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham acknowledged the incident in a statement on social media Sunday, saying that the U.K. would "take every step necessary to protect our communities and keep our country safe."
In March, then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer granted a U.S. request to use bases in the U.K. for "specific and limited" defensive strikes against Iran.
Iran's Foreign Ministry has condemned that decision.
Police have not publicly released the names or nationalities of those arrested, and no country has claimed responsibility for the alleged terrorist plot.
Following the arrests on Sunday, the U.S. Embassy in the U.K. issued a security alert warning Americans abroad to be mindful of ongoing risks.
"We remind U.S. citizens that UK authorities rate the threat of terrorism in the UK as severe," the embassy said. "U.S.-associated facilities, gatherings, and organizations may be at heightened risk."
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