British Army troops take The Sun into Europe’s last ‘no man’s land’ as abandoned city has been frozen for 50 years
PRINCE Harry’s former regiment gave The Sun a rare tour of the Cypriot buffer zone - a bullet-ridden no-man's land frozen in time for half-a-century.
Thousands of families were forced to flee at a moment's notice after Turkish forces staged an invasion in 1974, leading to a partition of the island.
Everything from new cars to dishes in the sink lie abandoned in an eerie 118 mile-stretch of land that divides the north and south of Cyprus.
We joined the Blues and Royals as they patrolled a portion of the buffer zone by Nicosia last week as part of their role as United Nations (UN) peacekeepers.
In scenes that look closer to Chernobyl than a scorching Brit holiday destination, we were shown through homes and shops left almost untouched for decades.
Rusted children's tricycles sat on a dusty ramp that led to a remarkable car showroom full of unused Toyota Corollas.
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Hotels and private schools featured hundreds of bullet holes - providing a chilling reminder of the hundreds of lives lost in the conflict.
Lieutenant Charlie Wallace guided us through one street - dubbed Spear Alley - where the passage of no-man's land is just three metres in width.
It was here that a Turkish soldier was stabbed to death in 1989 by a Greek troop who tied a bayonet to a long piece of bamboo.
That same year an agreement saw troops pushed back from the buffer zone in a bid to stop an outbreak of war.
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Now both sides watch from a series of CCTV cameras dotted along the demilitarised zone, or from a number of checkpoints on the border.
A game of cat and mouse sometimes sees each side push its luck and claim inches of land by the moving of bricks or barrels.
We toured a number of apartments that overlook the border - and saw books left open on pages in a panic and clothing hanging out of washing machines.
Crockery sat in the sink, left as gunfire rang out, and TVs, toys and films were left in the very spot they were once used.
Some of the trail revealed 12th century churches - featuring the coats of arms of crusaders.
Our journey finished at the Ledra Palace Hotel - a former five-star stay lapped up by the likes of Elizabeth Taylor - and now a base used by British troops.
Videos on YouTube show a heavy firefight on the very ground we stood, complete with the same interior, with the plant pots once used as cover still on display.
And while the buildings throughout the zone remain the same, flowers grow through the barbed wire that divides both sides.
Commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Roland Spiller is based in Cyprus after featuring in the procession for the King's Coronation last month.
He said: "The UN buffer zone is here to prevent a recurrence of fighting like anything we saw in 1974.
"The British Army provides everything from standing patrols, to search capability in the event of any crisis.
"We hold ground as Sector Two and provide an operations company, which patrols through the buffer zone, ensuring that both sides can trust the other not to commit any violations.
"A lot of the centre in particular is subject to a 1989 agreement to take soldiers away from the area to de-escalate tensions as often the checkpoints are only a few metres apart.
"And having soldiers standing nose to nose, deeply resenting each other, was just a recipe for trouble.
"So what the UN has been able to do is encourage both sides to demilitarise these areas and we then constantly patrol them to ensure each side is not building fortifications, or is moving people back into areas they agreed to unman."
The buffer zone is split into three zones, with half of the 240 British Army troops in the territory based in sector two.
The other areas are manned by Argentinian and Slovakian soldiers as part of their contribution to the UN peacekeeping mission.
For the past five decades, Cyprus has remained divided between the southern Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which has only been recognised by Turkey.
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Previous attempts to unite the sides have failed, but conflict does appear to have subsided, with the last shooting in the area in 1994.
One of the key issues yet to be resolved between the sides is security, with more than 30,000 Turkish troops still in the north.
