A volcano in eastern Papua New Guinea has erupted, spewing rocks and ash into the air, disrupting regional air travel and forcing local communities to evacuate.

Mount Tavurvur on New Britain came to life Friday, spewing volcanic material into the sky, reports BBC News.

Officials have said there are so far no reported deaths or injuries caused by the volcano.

Residents in the island's Rabaul district were advised to remain indoors to avoid falling ash, while Australia issued travel warnings that advised against visiting the island.

Papua New Guinea has a number of active volcanoes and is located along the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an area where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean.

In a 25,000-mile horseshoe shape, the Ring of Fire is associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs and belts and plate movements.

The Ring includes an estimated 452 volcanoes and is home to over 75 percent of the world's active and dormant volcanoes.

The town of Rabaul was destroyed in 1994 when Mount Tavurvur erupted at the same time as nearby Mount Vulcan.

Hotel manager Rodney Aua told the AFP news agency that "some people closed their businesses" amid the latest volcanic activity and were "moving to areas as far away as possible ... Police are also there to make sure looting doesn't happen again like in 1994."

The Volcanic Ash Advisory Center in the Australian city of Darwin said a volcanic ash cloud has now been spotted drifting southeast.

"The ash was initially blowing to the southwest but has now turned to the southeast ... We expect it to clip the edge of Australian airspace later today but we don't expect ash over Australia," center spokeswoman Cyndee Feals said in the BBC News story.

A spokeswoman from the Quantas airline company said flights paths from Sydney to Tokyo and Shangri were changed to avoid the ash cloud.