Zhang Shuili, deputy director of the western theatre combat bureau, said the incident took place in "recent days". He did not give an exact location.

He was quoted in Xinhua news agency as saying that India had "violated China's territorial sovereignty".

The Indian army said the drone had been deployed on a training mission and developed a technical problem.

Indian army spokesperson Colonel Aman Anand told reporters that they had lost control of the drone which then crossed into Chinese airspace. They alerted their Chinese counterparts soon after, he added.

The two countries saw relations worsen this summer when they became locked in a dispute over a Himalayan plateau.

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