Arabic version: اعتقال رجلين لاتفيين بعد اختراق سياج قاعدة سلاح الجو الملكي في مولسوورث

According to BBC News, two Latvian men have been arrested under the National Security Act after a perimeter fence was breached at RAF Molesworth in Cambridgeshire.

A Ministry of Defence Police security patrol raised the alert after finding an abandoned vehicle at about 22:00 BST on Wednesday. Searches by the Ministry of Defence Police and Cambridgeshire Constabulary later identified a small breach in the base’s perimeter fence.

The men, aged 36 and 32, were arrested inside the base perimeter. The Metropolitan Police said both lived in the UK. They were initially arrested on suspicion of trespass on a prohibited site and criminal damage, before being taken to a Cambridgeshire police station.

They have since been further arrested on suspicion of an offence under section 4 of the National Security Act 2023: entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the UK.

Police are not currently linking the case to the high-profile incident at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, though they are understood to be keeping an open mind. RAF Molesworth, west of Huntingdon near the Northamptonshire border, hosts US intelligence operations centres for Europe and Africa as well as a Nato intelligence hub, according to the Central Intelligence Agency’s website.