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At least 529 people are now known to have died in a powerful quake that struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Wednesday, the government says. Rescuers struggled on Thursday to find survivors in the rubble of hundreds of collapsed buildings. More than 400 people have been seriously injured, and the death toll is expected to rise, officials say. The 7.6-magnitude quake struck close to the city of Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province. The earthquake brought down hospitals, schools and shopping malls, cut power lines and triggered landslides. Rescuers struggled on Thursday to find survivors in the rubble of hundreds of collapsed buildings. More than 400 people have been seriously injured, and the death toll is expected to rise, officials say. The 7.6-magnitude quake struck close to the city of Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province. The earthquake brought down hospitals, schools and shopping malls, cut power lines and triggered landslides. David Lange, a doctor with Surfaid International, told the BBC one of the hospitals was "completely destroyed". "They are trying to operate in the parking lot, in a tent, in the mud." Earlier Priyadi Kardono, a spokesman for Indonesia's National Disaster Agency, said more than 500 houses and buildings had collapsed. The quake brought down telephone lines, severely affecting communications with the region and making it difficult to assess the scale of the damage. Health ministry teams and Indonesian soldiers have arrived in Padang to aid the search for survivors. A shortage of heavy machinery remains a problem. The first flights carrying food, medicine and body bags have started to arrive. Tents and blankets were also on their way to help the homeless, the health ministry said. Padang's main hospital received a stream of ambulances bringing in victims. Relatives searched through lists of names pinned on windows. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is now flying to Padang. "Let's not underestimate [the disaster]," he said as he left Jakarta. "Let's be prepared for the worst. We will do everything we can to help the victims." Witnesses to the first quake said residents ran out of buildings in Padang which has a population of 900,000 - and surrounding cities. An American in Padang, Greg Hunt, told Reuters this was the worst earthquake he had experienced. "It's getting nasty in town. It's chaos. There's no fuel, people are looting. It's getting worse because people have no food, no money. "There's thousands trying to leave town, the roads are blocked." Australia has offered to send emergency assistance to Indonesia if needed. "They are very close friends and neighbours. They know that we are here and available to help. They just have to ask," said Aid Minister Bob McMullan. Indonesian officials have said the quake was one of the biggest in Indonesia in recent years and could have been more powerful than the 2006 Yogyakarta quake that killed more then 5,000 people. Wednesday's quake was along the same fault line that spawned the 2004 Asian tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries. That quake struck roughly 600km north-west of Padang. Geologists have long warned that Padang could one day be completely destroyed by an earthquake because of its location. Western Sumatra is a mainly rural area with dense tropical forest. It has several national parks and many of its beaches are popular with surfers.