Before the fortress capitulated in August, many Turkish families had been compelled by hunger to escape and throw themselves at the mercy of Greeks of the neighbourhood.

When the capitulation was concluded, the city's Turks gave up all the public property in the fortress and all of their money, plates and jewels.

One of the Greek negotiators, Poniropoulos, boasted some years later to General Thomas Gordon that he destroyed the copy of capitulation that had been given to the Turks, so that no proof would remain of any such transaction having been concluded.

Based on the descriptions provided by Phrantzes, he wrote: "Women, wounded with musketballs and sabre-cuts, rushed to the sea, seeking to escape, and were deliberately shot.

Mothers robbed of their clothes, with infants in their arms plunged into the sea to conceal themselves from shame, and they were them made a mark for inhuman riflemen.