[6][7] The engagement involved approximately 12 members of Georgios Grivas’s EOKA group and a 40 man detachment of the 45 Commando Royal Marines.

British sources state that a Greek man was arrested in the vicinity carrying a rifle and cordex fuses and gave Grivas’ location away during interrogation.

Grivas and his men managed to escape and Britain sustained multiple casualties.

[11] Greek sources claim that during the battle British units from the north and ones from the south, unable to see in the fog and in the belief that they were surrounded by EOKA fighters, engaged each other in an eight-hour firefight involving airstrikes, artillery bombardments, and heavy weapons.

This firefight caused 250 casualties, including 127 deaths, 102 injuries, and 21 missing, which, if true, would make it the deadliest friendly fire incident of the war.