The death toll in a quake that struck the Indonesia island of Sumatra could number in the "thousands", a health ministry official said on Thursday, Reuters reported.

Rustam Pakaya, the head of the health ministry's disaster centre, made the forecast to Reuters at Jakarta's Halim airport.

The quake toppled hundreds of buildings in the city of Padang on Sumatra on Thursday. Officials had earlier put the death toll at between 100 and 200 people, but warned that many others remained buried under rubble.