A sub-sea earthquake has hit Bali, Lombok and East Java, causing damage to homes and temples, Indonesian authorities said.

The geophysics agency said the quake did not have the potential to cause a tsunami.

Indonesia Earthquake
People check a damaged temple in Bali, Indonesia (Firdia Lisnawati/AP)

The US Geological Survey said the magnitude 5.7 quake was centred 82 kilometres (51 miles) to the south-west of Denpasar on Bali at a depth of 91 kilometres (57 miles).

The national disaster agency posted photos on its Twitter account showing a damaged Hindu temple in Bali and a damaged house in Banyuwangi in East Java.

The main hospital in Denpasar evacuated patients, some attached to intravenous drips, to the hospital grounds, television footage showed. Numerous schools and hotels were also evacuated.

“While having breakfast, suddenly everything in the room swayed very strongly,” said George Stephen, an Australian holidaying in Bali’s Kuta area.

He said guests fled the hotel in panic but returned after about 15 minutes.

A quake on Sunday in North Maluku province killed two people and damaged dozens of homes.

Indonesia, home to more than 260 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on what is known as the Pacific “Ring of Fire”.

A powerful Indian Ocean quake and tsunami in 2004 killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia.