Rescue workers were still pulling dead bodies from the rubble of the 6.3 magnitude quake, which struck at dawn on Saturday and levelled entire villages around the ancient royal capital of Yogyakarta, reducing homes to piles of wood, tiles and tin.

Estimates of the number of people displaced or left homeless by the quake that killed at least 6,234 people were unclear, but a provincial official said it had destroyed or damaged 130,000 homes.

"At this moment the number of homeless is not clear, but why don't you calculate from the numbers of homes damaged?" Bambang Susanto Priyohadi, Yogyakarta provincial secretary, told Reuters.

Some survivors complained of looting and in remote areas aid vehicles were being given police escort for protection from desperate survivors and thieves. Police have also asked that relief not be delivered at night.

"In some regions the lamps are not working and some people see this as an opportunity to steal," student volunteer Arief Budiman, who has been helping keep watch at night in the Bantul village of Baturetno, told Reuters.

"Almost all villages are conducting nightwatches to prevent stealing," said Budiman.

Many survivors have constructed shelters from the ruins of their homes and are living in squalid conditions.

Health workers had raised fears of disease due to unhygienic living conditions, but the United Nations said the chances of a public health crisis emerging were slim because the homeless were relatively dispersed.