Colombo: The Sri Lankan Navy is on alert to prevent Tamil Tigers chief Velupillai Prabhakaran from fleeing the island, the state television quoted a naval official as saying Sunday.

Commander D.K.P. Dassanayake, the Sri Lankan Navy spokesman told the ITN television that the navy had laid a security net around the coast off Mullaitivu in the north.

"We have our fast attack craft, speed boats, radars and other equipment keeping watch throughout 24 hours," Dassanayake told ITN here Sunday.

The navy's defences had been laid in four rings along an area of 25 nautical mile distance off the Mullaitivu coast.

The navy spokesman said that Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE) leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is expected to flee the island with his wife and two children.

Prabhakaran's LTTE that has been fighting a bitter separatist war for about three decades was now facing serious setbacks in the face of the advancing army.

The LTTE which found themselves evicted from the Eastern Province in July 2007, lost its former administrative headquarters at Kilinochchi in the north early this month. They are now confined to the jungle thickets of Mullaitivu.

The troops, buoyed by success in the battlefields, are currently heading towards Mullaitivu where Prabakaran is believed to be located in his jungle bunker hideout.

Sri Lankan Army chief Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka stressed that the Tamil Tigers would not be allowed to escape from the island.

Source : IANS