Five Indian army personnel were killed in a military chopper crash on Friday near the country's disputed border with China.
The advanced lightweight HAL Rudra went down along with five army personnel including two pilots at south of Tuting, a remote town near the Line of Actual Control which divides India's northeastern Arunachal Pradesh state from Chinese territory.
The chopper took off from Likabali town on Friday morning for its regular sorties when the incident occurred at 10.43 am, 35 kilometers away from the borders with China.
“The cause of the crash is not yet known and details are being ascertained,” a defense spokesperson said.
The air traffic controllers had received a mayday call before the crash that suggested technical or mechanical failure, the ministry said in a statement.
The crash marked the second fatal incident in the region this month. On October 5, a HAL Cheetah helicopter crashed in Tawang district during its routine flight, killing one of its two pilots.
Arunachal Pradesh has witnessed 13 crashes since 1995 that killed 47 people till date.
In 1962, China and India fought a full-scale war over the control of the state of Arunachal Pradesh, that China considers a part of Tibet.
Fresh tensions again erupted in 2020 between the two countries over the disputed Himalayan border and took the lives of 20 Indian and at least four Chinese army men.