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(Image: GETTY)

Reunion Island, 500 miles off the coast of Africa, has become the centre of global attention after wings of an aircraft were found on its coast.

Experts have said they are "highly confident" the findings will be linked to the missing Malaysia Airlines flight.

But just hours after the evidence washed up in Saint Andre – a town on the east of the French Indian Ocean island – a volcano alert was sent out.

The island's volcanic observatory, the OVPF, have warned an eruption is an "imminent possibility".

And an emergency evacuation is now underway with people fleeing the area surrounding active volcano Le Piton de la Fournaise.

Hundreds of journalists had arrived in Reunion following yesterday's news.

But now island officials are warning those travelling to the island to take caution on arrival.

(Image: GETTY) (Image: GETTY)

According to the island's tourist website, the volcano "has its place amongst the most active volcanoes on the planet, with an average of one eruption every nine months".

Earlier today, researchers found that a group of barnacles attached to the plane wreckage may be proof that the parts are from MH370.

Joseph Poupin provided the analysis explaining the shellfish would have been growing for around a year – almost as long as the plane, which went missing in March 2014.

From this, he believes experts would be able to track where and how the plane reached Reunion.

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