NEW DELHI: Indian army has acknowledged that its twenty soldiers were killed in clashes with Chinese troops at the disputed border site in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley on Monday night.

Indian army initially said three of its soldiers have been killed.

An Indian government source said the troops fought with iron rods and stones but no shots were fired.

Also Read: Chinese troops kill three Indian soldiers including commanding officer in Ladakh

Beijing, while holding India responsible for the clash, said the Indian soldiers had crossed the border into Chinese side.

Chinese military has demanded India to stop all provocations and return to dialogue.

Defence experts believe that no Indian soldier has been killed in skirmishes with China since 1975. India and China have been having tense relation for a month near the border in Ladakh. Earlier, videos of Chinese and Indian soldiers were doing rounds on social media, in which it could be seen that troops of both the countries were having hot arguments on some issue.

The Chinese foreign ministry spokesman in a statement had said that the Indian troops had twice crossed the Line of Actual Control, “provoking and attacking Chinese personnel, which led to serious physical conflicts between the two sides.”

The Indian army had said that casualties had happened on both the side, a claim that the Chinese authorities termed baseless.