The leader of coup attempt in Burundi, General Godefroid Niyombare, has gone on the run after escaping capture by troops loyal to the central African nation's president, a senior police official told AFP Friday.

"General Niyombare has evaded us but we know where he is hiding," the official said, adding he was believed to have fled to a southern district of the capital Bujumbura. Niyombare had earlier Friday told AFP by telephone he was surrendering and that loyalist troops were closing in on him.