Twenty Indian soldiers were killed during "hand-to-hand' fighting with Chinese troops in a disputed Himalayan region, India's military said, the first deadly clash between the nuclear powers in decades.

Both sides blamed the other for Monday's violence, which followed weeks of rising tensions over their competing territorial claims, with thousands of extra troops deployed.

The clashes reportedly involved intense fighting and no gunfire, in line with longstanding tactics to avoid a full military battle over the disputed 3,500-kilometre (2,200-mile) border.

An Indian army source told AFP there was no shooting but there were "violent hand-to-hand scuffles".

The fighting occurred in the precipitous, rocky terrain of the strategically important Galwan Valley, which lies between China's Tibet and India's Ladakh.

The soldiers threw punches and stones at each other, with Chinese troops allegedly attacking their Indian counterparts with rods and nail-studded clubs during the more than six-hour fight, the Hindustan Times reported.

India initially said three of its troops had died, and that there were "casualties on both sides".

But in a statement late Tuesday the army added 17 more critically injured were "exposed to sub-zero temperatures... (and) succumbed to their injuries".

China's defence ministry confirmed the incident had resulted in casualties but did not give the nationality of the victims or any other details.

Both sides gave competing versions of the violence.

Beijing claimed Indian troops "crossed the border line twice... provoking and attacking Chinese personnel, resulting in serious physical confrontation between border forces on the two sides".

But Indian foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said the clash arose from "an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo" on the border.

While the incident dominated the free-wheeling Indian press, China's state-controlled media played down or ignored it, in keeping with Beijing's low-key public response.

CCTV's widely watched evening news broadcast made no mention of the border confrontation on Tuesday.

"China does not want to turn border issues with India into a confrontation," the Global Times, a nationalist Chinese tabloid said in an editorial on Wednesday, although it blasted India for "arrogance and recklessness".

- Calls for restraint -

The United States -- which has mounting frictions with China, but sees India as an emerging ally -- said it was hoping for a "peaceful resolution", and that it was monitoring the situation closely.

The UN called for both sides to "exercise maximum restraint".

India and China have never even agreed on the length of their "Line of Actual Control" frontier, and each side uses different frontier proposals made by Britain to China in the 19th century to back their claims.

They fought a brief war in 1962 in which China took territory from India. Further deadly clashes followed in 1967, but the last shot fired in anger was in 1975, when four Indian soldiers were ambushed and killed along the dividing line in Arunachal Pradesh.

In 2017 there was a 72-day showdown after Chinese forces moved into the disputed Doklam plateau on the China-India-Bhutan border.

The recent uptick in tensions began on May 9, when several Indian and Chinese soldiers were injured in a clash involving fists and stone-throwing at Naku La in India's Sikkim state, which borders Bhutan, Nepal and China.

China said last week it had reached a "positive consensus" with India over resolving tensions at the border, while New Delhi also sounded conciliatory.

However, Indian sources and news reports suggested that Chinese troops remained in parts of the Galwan Valley and of the northern shore of the Pangong Tso lake that it occupied in recent weeks.

The prickly relationship had already been strained when India in August revoked the semi-autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir state.

That saw the Ladakh region -- partly claimed by Beijing -- turned into a separate Indian administrative territory.

Key dates in India-China border tensions
New Delhi (AFP) June 16, 2020 - Asian regional superpowers India and China share a long history of mistrust and conflict along their lengthy border, and tensions flared this week in their first deadly clash in more than four decades.

The world's two most populous nations and nuclear-armed neighbours have never even agreed on the length of their "Line of Actual Control" frontier, which straddles the strategically important Himalayan region.

Recent decades have seen numerous skirmishes along the border, including a brief but bloody war in 1962.

Here are some key dates:

- Nehru's 1959 Beijing visit -

India inherited its border dispute with China from its British colonial rulers, who hosted a 1914 conference with the Tibetan and Chinese governments to set the border.

Beijing has never recognised the 1914 boundary, known as the McMahon Line, and currently claims 90,000 square kilometres (34,750 square miles) of territory -- nearly all of what constitutes India's Arunachal Pradesh state.

The border dispute first flared up during a visit by India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to Beijing in 1959.

Nehru questioned the boundaries shown on official Chinese maps, prompting Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai to reply that his government did not accept the colonial frontier.

- 1962 Sino-Indian War -

Chinese troops poured over the disputed frontier with India in 1962 during a row over the border's demarcation. It sparked a four-week war that left thousands dead on the Indian side before China's forces withdrew.

Beijing retained Aksai Chin, a strategic corridor linking Tibet to western China. India still claims the entire Aksai Chin region as its own, as well as the nearby China-controlled Shaksgam valley in northern Kashmir.

- 1967 Nathu La conflict -

Another flashpoint was Nathu La, India's highest mountain pass in northeastern Sikkim state, which is sandwiched between Bhutan, Chinese-ruled Tibet and Nepal.

During a series of clashes, including the exchange of artillery fire, New Delhi said some 80 Indian soldiers died and counted up to 400 Chinese casualties.

- 1975 Tulung La ambush -

This skirmish was the last time shots were officially reported to have been fired across the disputed border.

Four Indian soldiers were ambushed and killed along the dividing line in Arunachal Pradesh.

New Delhi blamed Beijing for crossing into Indian territory, a claim dismissed by China.

- 2017 Doklam plateau stand-off -

India and China had a months-long high-altitude standoff in Bhutan's Doklam region after the Indian army sent troops to stop China constructing a road in the area.

The Doklam plateau is strategically significant as it gives China access to the so-called "chicken's neck" -- a thin strip of land connecting India's northeastern states with the rest of the country.

It is claimed by both China and Bhutan, an ally of India. The issue was resolved after talks.

- 2020 Ladakh confrontation -

India said Tuesday that 20 of its soldiers were killed after a violent clash with Chinese forces a day earlier in the strategically important Galwan Valley on the Himalayan frontier, a dramatic escalation that represents the first combat fatalities between the Asian powers since 1975.

The clash follows weeks of low-level tensions after several Indian and Chinese soldiers were injured in a high-altitude fist fight on the border at Sikkim state in early May.

Indian officials said that within days, Chinese troops encroached over the demarcation line further west in Ladakh region and India then moved in extra troops to positions opposite.

Last week both countries said they would peacefully resolve the face-off after a high-level meeting between army commanders.

But on Tuesday India revealed that those efforts had gone badly wrong, with both sides blaming each other.

Beijing confirmed there had been casualties in Monday's clash but gave no further details, including nationalities.

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India says three soldiers killed in clash on Chinese border
New Delhi (AFP) June 16, 2020
Three Indian soldiers have been killed in a "violent face-off" on the Chinese border, the Indian army said Tuesday following weeks of rising tensions and the deployment of thousands of extra troops from both sides. Brawls and face-offs flare on a fairly regular basis between the two nuclear-armed giants over their 3,500-kilometre (2,200-mile) frontier, which has never been properly demarcated, but no one has been killed in decades. The Indian army said that there were "casualties on both sides", ... read more