Indon quake damages thousands of homes

Officials are racing to assess the full extent of damage from an earthquake that killed more than 100 people in Indonesia's Aceh province.

Rescue workers are combing through the rubble to find survivors of an earthquake that hit Indonesia. (AAP)

Humanitarian organisations have descended on Indonesia's Aceh province as the government in Jakarta promises tonnes of emergency aid and officials race to assess the full extent of damage from an earthquake that killed more than 100 people.

Search efforts involving volunteers and nearly 1500 rescue personnel were concentrated on the hard-hit town of Meureudu in Pidie Jaya district near the epicentre of the magnitude 6.5 quake that hit before dawn on Wednesday. Humanitarian assessment teams were fanning out to other areas of the district.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the death toll had risen to 102 and warned it could increase. Search teams were using devices that detect mobile phone signals to help guide their efforts, he said. Aceh's disaster mitigation agency said more than 600 people were injured.

Nugroho said on Twitter 11,000 people have been displaced, more than 10,500 homes were damaged and 55 mosques collapsed.

Separately, an official in Pidie Jaya district near the quake's epicentre said search and rescue efforts have intensified with more excavators deployed in devastated areas.

Killer quakes occur regularly in the region, where many live with the terrifying memory of a giant December 26, 2004, earthquake that struck off Sumatra. The magnitude 9.1 quake triggered a devastating tsunami that killed a total of 230,000 people in a dozen countries, including more than 100,000 Acehnese.

The Indonesian government said its urgent aid would be flown out of Jakarta early on Thursday afternoon and will include 10 generators, tents, folding beds, baby supplies and body bags.

The Red Cross deployed aid such as water trucks on Wednesday and humanitarian group CARE said it is leading an assessment team of four different international aid groups to avoid duplication of efforts.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake was centred about 19 kilometres southeast of Sigli, a town near the northern tip of Sumatra, at a depth of 17 kilometres.