Fire ravages Kuta hotel

Several parts of the four-star Mercure hotel in Bali's prime tourism district of Kuta were destroyed on Tuesday night after fire razed its fourth floor.

No fatalities were reported.

The fire tied up dozens of firefighters for hours and forced the hotel management to evacuate all of their 200 guests.

The fire was finally extinguished at around 3 a.m. local time.

Hotel resident manager Tony Andrianto disclosed on Tuesday morning that the fire first broke out at around 10.30 p.m. at the in-house spa facility on the hotel's fourth floor.

The fire then quickly engulfed the kitchen on the fourth floor.

"Not a single guest room was damaged by the fire," Andrianto said, dismissing rumors that 20 guest rooms on the fourth floor were destroyed.

The police are still investigating the cause of the fire.

The 130-room Mercure, opened in December last year, was located next to the always-busy night entertainment spots of Hard Rock Hotel and Hard Rock Cafe, and right across the street from Kuta beach. -- JP