AFP, Vientiane

From their shared hospital room, several survivors freed from a semi-submerged cave in Laos after more than a week underground are advising rescuers on how to find the last two missing men believed to be trapped even deeper inside.

Rescuers, including foreign cave divers, said yesterday they were devising a risky search for the two men and gaining insights about the narrow, flooded passageways from the survivors -- one of whom spoke of “waiting to die” in the depths of the cave.

A Laotian rescue group said the information on the cave system from the hospitalised men was “considered substantial” and “being used to prepare the search plan for the remaining two people”.

“The hope is that today’s mission will locate both remaining victims,” the group wrote yesterday on social media. Five men were found alive on Wednesday, huddling in a tight shaft around 300 metres from the mouth of the cave in a remote mountainous area of central Xaysomboun province.

They were among seven stranded in the cave by flash floods nearly two weeks ago as they searched for gold.