‘American spy’ stabbed outside leisure centre near GCHQ’s headquarters

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and terrorism offences after a woman was stabbed near GCHQ headquaters.

Gloucestershire Police confirmed a 29-year-old suspect was arrested in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, following the incident outside a leisure centre at around 9.15am on March 9.

The woman sustained serious injuries but remains in a stable condition in hospital, Gloucestershire Constabulary said.

According to reports by the Daily Mail, the unnamed victim is a “American spy on secondment to GCHQ”, and the incident took place just three miles from GCHQ headquarters.

The woman is said to have been sitting in a car in the Leisure at Cheltenham car park at the time of the incident and managed to stagger out of the vehicle for help, the Daily Mail reported.

The suspect, who remains in custody, was re-arrested on Friday under the Terrorism Act, after being arrested on suspicion of attempted murder immediately after the incident.

The man was arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorism contrary to Section 41 of the Terrorism Act (2000), as well as on suspicion of preparing acts of terrorism under Section 5 of the Terrorism Act (2006).

On Saturday a warrant of further detention was obtained, allowing officers until Thursday, March 16 to question him.

Due to some specific details of this incident, Counter Terrorism Policing South East is leading the investigation, working alongside Counter Terrorism Policing South West and officers from Gloucestershire Constabulary, the force said.

Leisure at Cheltenham was closed to visitors on Sunday following the incident, but re-opened on Monday, according to a post on their Facebook page.

Assistant Chief Constable Richard Ocone of Gloucestershire Constabulary said: “I would like to reassure those living locally or visiting the county that we believe this was an isolated incident and we are not aware of any wider threat to members of the public. We are working closely with our partners in Counter Terrorism Policing.

“We appreciate that an incident of this nature may be concerning and we would encourage people to contact us via 101 with any additional information they may have about the incident.”

GCHQ declined to comment.