Jakarta – Indonesian police have detected an underground bunker below the central Jakarta home of former president Suharto's fugitive son Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra.

"We picked up geo- radar signals of a bunker below Tommy's house. We are going to try to open it today," a National Police spokesman said. "If we don't find the entrance, we will force our way in, using special tools."

Forensic police with geo-radar detectors scanned the grounds of the Suharto family's homes on Wednesday and Thursday in a bid to confirm the existence of bunkers. The Suharto family – the former Indonesian leader and his six children - have interconnecting houses in the plush Jakarta suburb of Menteng.

It is believed that Tommy, 38, who has eluded police for more than two months, may have hid in a bunker. The former playboy businessman has been on the run since early November when President Abdurrahman Wahid rejected his appeal for a pardon over a corruption conviction.

Another police source told the Astaga.com on-line news service that several bunkers had been detected 15 m below the Suharto homes. "All the rooms are interconnected. Now we're trying to locate the door that leads into the bunkers," the source said.

Jakarta's chief of detectives, Commissioner Harry Montolalu, said yesterday police were still waiting for the geo-radar findings to be analysed. "We still haven't got a final result from the forensics laboratory," he said. Police hoped to break into the bunkers by tomorrow, he said.