A group of men stranded on a mountaintop in northeastern Malaysia's Kelantan state for about a week, two of whom have been rescued, survived only on rainwater, the domestic press reported.

Two of the men, Hairuddin Abdul Wahab, 40, and Razi Kanesh, 24, were rescued two days ago while three remain on the mountain after thick clouds, strong wind and rain hampered efforts to rescue them, a spokesman from the Fire and Rescue Department was quoted as saying by the Bernama news agency.

"We know their location, but because of the bad weather conditions, the helicopter could not reach them and had to turn back about an hour or so later," Zulkifli Ma'am said.

"Our team could not rescue all five of them due to space restrictions inside the helicopter," he said. "We could only save the two men who were in critical condition, as the other three were deemed to be alright."

Food supplies ran out

Survivor Hairuddin was quoted as saying by the Malay-language Berita Harian today: "We only drank rainwater for the past five days as our food supplies ran out.

"I thought I would surely die. There were no roots or plants that could be eaten on the mountain top, only stones and lots of small trees," he said.

The group was flown by helicopter to the top of Gagau Mountain a week ago to measure rainfall and was due back after two days.

Meanwhile, the Fire and Rescue Department dropped some bread, biscuits and water to the remaining three, who are reported to be increasingly weak from hunger. - AFP