Homes and buildings have crumbled in a massive earthquake that struck Indonesia, killing at least 162 people and burying many under the  ruins.

Rescuers are trying to reach survivors after the 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck Cianjur, about 75km southeast of Jakarta, sending people fleeing from their homes in panic.

Even in the capital’s CBD, office workers were evacuated as buildings shook and furniture moved.

The powerful disaster has displaced more than 13,000 people and the region’s governor Ridwan Kamil said it was likely the death toll would rise.

It struck at a relatively shallow depth of 10km, according to the weather and geophysics agency (BMKG), which was why is was strongly felt.

“So many buildings crumbled and shattered,” said Mr Kamil.

“There are residents trapped in isolated places… so we are under the assumption that the number of injured and deaths will rise with time.”

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Indonesia straddles the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire,” a highly seismically active zone, where different plates on the earth’s crust meet and create a large number of earthquakes and volcanoes.

Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) said more than 2200 houses had been damaged.

Electricity was down and disrupting communications efforts, Herman Suherman, head of Cianjur’s government, said, adding that a landslide was blocking evacuations in one area.

Hundreds of victims were being treated in a hospital parking lot, some under an emergency tent.

Elsewhere in Cianjur, residents huddled together on mats in open fields or in tents while buildings around them had been reduced almost entirely to rubble.

Wounded survivors of an earthquake are being treated in the yard of a hospital in Cianjur. Photo: Getty

Officials were still working to determine the full extent of the damage caused by the quake.

Vani, who was being treated at Cianjur main hospital, told MetroTV that the walls of her house collapsed during an aftershock.

“The walls and wardrobe just fell… Everything was flattened, I don’t even know the whereabouts of my mother and father,” she said.

Within two hours, 25 aftershocks had been recorded, BMKG said, adding there were concerns about more landslides in the event of heavy rain.

In Jakarta, some people fled offices in the central business district while others reported buildings shaking and furniture moving, Reuters witnesses said.

In 2004, a 9.1 magnitude quake off Sumatra island in northern Indonesia triggered a tsunami that struck 14 countries, killing 226,000 people along the Indian Ocean coastline, more than half of them in Indonesia.

In less than two hours after the quake, 25 aftershocks had been recorded, BMKG said, adding there were concerns about the potential for more landslides in the event of heavy rain.

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