At least five people died and scores were injured when a strong earthquake shook Indonesia's ancient royal capital and popular tourist area of Yogyakarta early on Saturday morning, hospital staff said.

An earthquake that shook the area around the ancient royal city of Yogyakarta early on Saturday morning has killed at least 15 people and left hundreds injured, hospital staff said. In the town of Bantul, 55 km (34 miles) south of Yogyakarta, the local hospital's information officer, Kardi, said: 'At least 10 people are dead, hundreds are hurt'. [Reuters]

"We have at least five people dead, but it could be more," Wahab, a nurse at Muhammmadiyah hospital, told Reuters by telephone. He said there were dozens more injured.

Earlier Hany, an official at the same hospital, told a radio station that 50 people had been admitted for treatment, adding: "the victims are still coming."

Jakarta's earthquake center official Fauzi put the strength of the quake at 5.8 and said its epicenter was in the sea about 50 kilometers south of Yogyakarta and had a depth of 33 kilometers.

Yogyakarta is on Indonesia's main island of Java and near Mount Merapi, a volcano that has been on top alert for a major eruption this month, but a vulcanoligist in Yogyakarta said the quake was tectonic and not caused by the volcano.