Indonesia's disaster agency on Saturday announced that at least six people have lost their lives after a 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia's main Java island.

"The agency has recorded six dead and one person who sustained serious injuries," said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Raditya Jati, adding that several villages in East Java had been evacuated.

AFP reports that the quake struck at a relatively deep 82 kilometres (50 miles) — shallower quakes tend to do more damage than deep ones.

Images from the scene showed a ceiling caved in at a hospital ward and debris strewn across the floor of the local parliament in Blitar, a city southwest of Malang.