Two Saudi Air Force cadets training in Britain have been arrested over an alleged rape.

The Middle Eastern recruits, both 21, who are currently stationed at an RAF base, were held after a woman complained she was sexually assaulted last week.

The Saudi men, based at RAF Cosford in Shropshire, are alleged to have carried out the attack in nearby Telford.

One of them was arrested on suspicion of rape, while the second was held on suspicion of conspiracy to rape. They have been released on bail until next month.

The Middle Eastern recruits, both 21, who are currently stationed at an RAF base, were held after a woman complained she was sexually assaulted last week (stock photograph)

RAF Cosford hosts elite air engineers from all over the world, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, who learn to work on planes sold by the UK to their countries.

Warrant Officer Andy Bisset, who oversees the training scheme, told a local paper in 2014: 'We get international students being sent here to train because we are the best in the world.

'The students come from places like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, where we also sell a lot of our equipment to.

'They do really well with the language barriers and the countries don't just send everyone over, it's their best students.'

The Shropshire air base is the only place in the country where decommissioned Jaguar jets are used for students to learn how to work with live aircraft.

The RAF Cosford website states that its school trains over 1,000 students per year, including 'engineer officers from a number of overseas countries such as Sultanate of Oman, Nation of Brunei and, Kingdoms of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.'

Training students from Saudi Arabia and other foreign countries generated around £11.5 million for the Ministry of Defence in 2012-13

Natasha Kaur, from West Mercia Police, said: 'RAF Cosford are fully co-operating with West Mercia Police's ongoing investigation into this incident and both men have been released on bail until March.'

The Saudi men, based at RAF Cosford (pictured) in Shropshire, are alleged to have carried out the attack in nearby Telford

An RAF spokeswoman added: 'We can confirm that two overseas students based at RAF Cosford have been arrested by West Mercia Police on suspicion of rape and conspiracy to commit rape.'

This is not the first time that foreign recruits training in the UK have been linked to serious offences.

MoD bosses agreed to let up to 2,000 Libyan recruits train at Bassingbourn Barracks in Cambridgeshire in 2014.

But the multi-million pound programme was abandoned after allegations of rape, drunkenness, fighting and vandalism.

The majority of the Libyan cadets - a mix of established armed forces, new recruits and former revolutionaries - were sent home in November 2014 after five of them were charged with sexual assaults and reports of ill-discipline and disorder emerged.

Local residents described finding soldiers hiding under cars, wandering the streets drunk and engaging in anti-social behaviour.