Escape Tunnels 'Hidden Beneath Gaddafi Lair'

Colonel Gaddafi may have managed to escape capture by using a bunker and tunnel system underneath his compound in Tripoli.

The man who ruled Libya for 42 years is known to have deep bunkers under his Bab al Aziziya lair, which rebel fighters seized on Tuesday .

Some former Gaddafi officials say the compound is connected by long tunnels to far-flung parts of Tripoli in a hidden network that would have provided him with a quick escape route.

However, few people claim to have seen the tunnels and it is not certain they even exist.

But the reported "underground city" fits in with his sporadic movements throughout the six-month uprising, during which he would make sudden appearances in public, then vanish.

Many rebels are convinced he is now holed up somewhere in the sprawling al Aziziya compound.

One senior official, Fathi al Baja, said there were reports that Col Gaddafi , 69, had suffered a heart attack and was bedridden.

When rebels overran the complex they found hoards of weapons, one of the golf carts Gaddafi used to get around and his Bedouin tents - but the dictator, his sons and bodyguards were not there.

"There are so many rat holes in Tripoli. We are searching for him in the holes," said Colonel Ahmed Bani, a rebel military spokesman.

Opposition activist Mohammed Ganbawa said the rebels believe that in recent weeks Col Gaddafi moved between the homes of his sons and slept in a hospital.

He is even believed to have stayed in the Rixos Hotel, where international foreign media covering the conflict are being 'held hostage' .

Bab al Aziziya is known to have a bunker built for Col Gaddafi by West German engineers to withstand a massive attack.

Liacyr Ribeiro, a surgeon who performed plastic surgery on him in 1995, is among the few who claim first-hand knowledge of the hideout.

Dr Ribeiro was escorted underground to the bunker, which he said had two fully equipped and modern operating rooms, a gym and a swimming pool.

Omar Hussein, who served in the Tripoli police force until he joined the rebels , said it was widely believed that Bab al Aziziya sits on top of an "underground city".

"We know that there are tunnels linking his compound with the Old City, where the Red Fort is located, and to the main security headquarters," he said.