Quake shakes Indonesia's Bali, tourists run from hotels

The Red Cross said 43 people in the south of the island suffered injuries, including head wounds and broken bones, after some ceilings fell.

Seventeen were taken to hospital in the island's capital Denpasar, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho from the disaster mitigation agency.

The epicentre of the quake was about 160 km southwest of Denpasar, the US geological survey said.

Caroline Mercier, a 40-year-old tourist in the island's cultural centre of Ubud, said she was used to feeling quakes in California, but never like this one.

Novotel Bali Benoa, one of many resorts in the luxury southern beach area of Nusa Dua, evacuated its guests as the hotel shook for a minute.

"The funny thing is that the foreign guests who were sitting in the lobby did not feel the shaking. They started running when hearing people say 'there's an earthquake' while running down the lobby," hotel worker Ariyanti told Reuters.

Endro Tjahjono, head of information at Bali's meteorology agency, said there was no tsunami potential. Cracks appeared in the walls and glass lobby windows of his office in the southern town of Kuta, and some top floor ceilings fell, he said.

Indonesia is on the Pacific's "Rim of Fire" and gets regular earthquakes.