Dozens of people were killed and thousands trapped after an earthquake struck Indonesia's coastal town of Padang Wednesday morning.

The 7.6 magnitude quake that hit off Sumatra Island also knocked out power and communications, according to Indonesian vice president Jusuf Kalla's annonucement at a morning news conference in country's capital city of Jakarta.

Rescue teams in rural areas were working to dig people out of the rubble of their collapsed homes and buildings that were flattened by the quake.

Initial reports by the Indonesian government stated that 75 people were killed, but the number continues to rise as rescue workers dig through the debris.

"It's hard to tell because there is heavy rain and a blackout," Kalla told reporters. He said the real number of deaths is "definitely higher than that."

Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari told a local television station that two hospitals in Padang also collapsed in the massive quake.

"This is a high-scale disaster, more powerful than the earthquake in Yogyakarta in 2006 when more than 3,000 people died," he said.

The violent quake was felt as far as 100 miles away in the neighboring countries of Singapore and Malaysia.

The same fault line produced an 8.4 magnitude earthquake in 2004 that led to a massive tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed more than 230,000 people in 12 different countries.