Search called off in Indonesian quake-tsunami: official

The search for those killed in Indonesia's quake-tsunami disaster was called off Thursday, despite there being around 5,000 people still missing.

The magnitude 7.5-quake and a subsequent tsunami razed whole swathes of Palu to the ground on September 28.

More than 2,000 bodies have been recovered since the twin disaster on Sulawesi island.

But authorities fear 5,000 more could be buried beneath the ruined city, where entire villages were swallowed.

Rescuers had struggled to find remains in the twisted wreckage, a job made worse as mud hardened and bodies decomposed in the tropical heat.

"The search and rescue (SAR) operation for the victims will end this Thursday afternoon," SAR field director in Palu, Bambang Suryo, told AFP.

The government earlier indicated these hard-hit areas would be left untouched as mass graves.

Parks and monuments are planned at three of these worst-hit areas -- Balaroa, Petobo and Jono Oge -- to commemorate the possibly thousands of dead who will never found.

Those zones were all but destroyed by liquefaction, a phenomenon where the brute force of a quake turns soil to quicksand.

Humanitarian assistance has poured into the disaster-ravaged city but the recovery ever been criticised as moving too slowly.

Some foreign rescue teams were prevented from deploying quickly to the ground to assist in the search for the dead and missing.

The UN says 200,000 people are in dire need of humanitarian assistance in Palu, with clean drinking water and medical supplies still in short supply.

An estimated 80,000 people were displaced by the disaster, many squatting in tents outside their destroyed homes.

Taking a toll: Indonesia quake-disaster in numbers
Jakarta (AFP) Oct 11, 2018 - Indonesia has called off the search for those killed in a 7.5-magnitude earthquake and tsunami on Sulawesi island on September 28. Here are the latest figures from the disaster.

- 2,073 -

The total number of bodies recovered by Indonesian search and rescue teams, the national disaster agency said Thursday.

- 5,000 -

Those still believed missing somewhere beneath Balaroa and Petobo, two of Palu's worst-hit areas.

- 994 -

Victims buried in mass graves to prevent the spread of disease. The remainder were laid to rest by their families.

- 3 -

Monuments and green spaces planned as memorials to quake victims in Palu and nearby Sigi district.

- 18,353 -

Those who fled Palu in the aftermath of the disaster.

- 1600 -

The number of inmates still on the run nearly two weeks after the quake brought down the walls of six prisons.

- 11 -

The maximum height, in metres (36 feet), that the tsunami reached as it barrelled through Palu Bay and smashed into the foreshore.

- 522 -

Aftershocks that have rattled the disaster-ravaged city since the main quake.

- 200,000 -

Those in dire need of humanitarian assistance in Palu and surrounds.

- 10,679 -

Total injured in the disaster, one quarter of them seriously.

- 87,725 -

Displaced by the quake, with many living in tents outside their damaged homes or in emergency shelters.

- 2 -

The number of years it could take before all these people are back in homes.

Source: Indonesia's national disaster agency; Indonesian National Police; the United Nations.

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