Reaction between phenol and nitrous acid My question is about the products formed when phenol reacts with nitrous acid. I googled it and reached this PubChem paper (DOI: 10.1016/S0045-6535(02)00857-3), which states:


  It was found that phenol reacts with nitrous acid to produce cyanide ions. Cyanide ion generation is attributed to the conversion of phenol to nitrosophenol through the well-known nitrosation reaction, and decomposition of benzoquinonoxim to form cyanide and aliphatic compound.


Is this correct? If not, then what is the actual reaction?
What the reference says

The reference gives only following figure to support their theory. A weakness of this mechanism is requiring a high energy intermediate like sp2-carbocation.



An alternative proposal

This alternative avoids high-energy intermediates and thus appears more likely: