Indonesia's disaster agency says the death toll from the earthquake that shook Lombok island Sunday evening has risen to 131.

Spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said there are reports of other deaths but they still need to be verified. He said the death toll is still expected to increase.

Nearly 2,500 people have been hospitalised with serious injuries and more than 156,000 people have been displaced due to the extensive damage to their homes.

The magnitude 7.0 quake came a week after an earlier quake on Lombok killed 16 people.

The international charity Oxfam said drinking water was scarce because of a recent spell of extremely dry weather in Lombok. Food, medical supplies, tarps and clothes were also urgently needed, it said.

Aid began reaching isolated areas of the Indonesian island on Wednesday, where survivors are struggling in the aftermath of the quake.

Volunteers and rescue personnel were erecting more temporary shelters for the tens of thousands left homeless on Lombok by the tremor.

Thousands of people have been sleeping in makeshift shelters or out in the open.

Water, which has been in short supply due to a prolonged dry spell on the island, as well as food and medical supplies were being distributed from trucks.

The military said five planes carrying food, medicine, blankets, field tents and water tankers left Jakarta for the island early on Wednesday.

At a collapsed mosque in Bangsal district, emergency workers in orange uniforms removed a woman's body from the ruins on Wednesday morning. A green and yellow dome rested on the pile of rubble, the only part of the structure still intact.

Authorities said all the tourists who wanted to be evacuated from three outlying vacation islands due to power blackouts and damage to hotels had left by boat, some 5,000 people in all.

The quake was the second in a week to hit Lombok. A magnitude 6.4 earthquake on July 29 killed 16 people and cracked and weakened many structures, amplifying the damage that occurred in Sunday's quake.

Like its famous neighbor Bali, Lombok is known for beaches, mountains and a lush interior. Hotels and other buildings in both locations are not allowed to exceed the height of coconut trees.

Indonesia is prone to earthquakes because of its location on the "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. In December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.