In Indonesia, the official death toll from a magnitude-7.5 earthquake and tsunami late last month has risen to 2,010. Most of the fatalities took place in Palu, a small coastal city that bore the brunt of the disaster. The quake triggered an unusual phenomenon called liquefaction, when soil is turned to mud. Our correspondent Miro Lu visited the former site of one neighborhood that was completely wiped off the map.

Three kilometres of devastation. From a bird's eye view - the aftermath of the liquefaction process at Petobo, a neighbourhood in Palu city that has been effectively buried in a deep mud sludge, is jaw-dropping. Closer up, houses appear to have sunk into the mud up to their roofs. Cars and motorbikes stick out at odd angles.

MIRO LU PALU CITY "September 28th's earthquake triggered a rare geological phenomenon called liquefaction. It wrecked havoc in this particular neighbourhood Petobo. Officials say there were 2051 households here, and now this is what's all left."

Indonesia's search and rescue agency, Basarnas, has retrieved 830 bodies since the disaster struck the area. Extraction has been extremely difficult due to the soil condition in Petobo and the rescuers are running out of time. Indonesia's national disaster mitigation agency says it will stop searching operation on Thursday. This whole area might be turned into a mass graveyard.

YUSUF LATIF, SPOKESPERSON INDONESIA NATIONAL SEARCH AND RESCUE AGENCY "Now, we are doing our best to cover all areas that are affected, in addition to the information provided by the community about the discovery of bodies. Just doing evacuation at the moment. We are trying to take as many bodies buried or still in this area."

Fandy's brother lost his wife and three daughters in the deep mud. The brother couldn't bring himself to face the reality yet, so he sent Fandy to come and check on the site, where his house was and where all his belongs are.

So many of them come to this horrifying site, roam freely without gloves, masks or even proper shoes. Some are local residents who have lost family members and homes, others are just onlookers mesmerised by the mighty power of Mother Nature. For CGTN, I'm Miro Lu at Palu City.