Flights cancelled, residents to evacuate as Papua New Guinea volcano erupts

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Some residents of a remote Papua New Guinea island were preparing on Tuesday to evacuate from the vicinity of an erupting volcano that shot a cloud of ash into the sky forcing the cancellation of some flights.

Teams had been sent to the Mount Ulawun area on New Britain island to coordinate an evacuation after it began erupting on Monday, state broadcaster NBC PNG reported senior disaster management official Clement Bailey as saying.

Flights from the island's Hoskins airport had been cancelled, the broadcaster said, adding that the volcano was still erupting.

Papua New Guinea is on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a horse-shoe shaped band of volcanoes and fault lines circling the edges of the Pacific Ocean.

(Reporting by Alasdair Pal in Sydney; editing by Robert Birsel)