Vice President Jusuf Kalla announced the death toll at a news conference, hours after the 7.6-magnitude quake hit off the coast of the town of Padang on Wednesday.
Rustam Pakaya, head of the Health Ministry's crisis center, said thousands of people were trapped under collapsed buildings. He said a field hospital was being prepared to assist the injured.
Officials said the quake triggered a landslide that cut off land transport to the area closest to the epicenter. Power and telecommunications were also cut.
The quake was along the same fault line that spawned the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Meanwhile, the death toll from an earthquake-triggered tsunami that struck Samoa and American Samoa Tuesday had risen to nearly 100 by mid-morning Wednesday. (See separate story.)
Geologist look at a screen at the office of Indonesia's meteorological agency in Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, showing the magnitude of a powerful earthquake that rocked Sumatra island earlier in the day. (AP Photo/Irwin Fedriansyah)
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