Three members of India’s armed forces have been killed in a “violent face-off” with Chinese soldiers on their disputed Himalayan border, the Indian army has said in a statement. The deaths are the first loss of life in the border area in at least 45 years, and come amid a renewed dispute between the two countries in recent weeks. Indian and Chinese soldiers, who often do not carry weapons in the area to avoid escalating conflicts, have brawled, detained each other and deployed forces and equipment in the western Himalayas in recent weeks. “During the de-escalation process under way in the Galwan Valley, a violent face-off took place yesterday [Monday] night with casualties on both sides,” the Indian army said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon Delhi-time. “The loss of lives on the Indian side includes an officer and two soldiers.” It said “senior military officials of the two sides are currently meeting at the venue to defuse the situation”. It was unclear whether shots had been fired or if the men were killed in hand-to-hand combat. Several Indian media reports cited defence sources claimed the fighting involved stones and clubs. The Chinese also military suffered casualties, according to a tweet by the editor-in-chief of China’s state-run Global Times newspaper. “Based on what I know, Chinese side also suffered casualties in the Galwan Valley physical clash,” Hu Xijin wrote. He did not give further details. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman accused Indian troops of violating a consensus between the two sides “by illegally crossing the border twice and carrying out provocative attacks on Chinese soldiers, resulting in serious physical clashes”. The two countries have been locked in a decades-long stalemate over their competing claims to long, uninhabited stretches of the mountain range. China claims more than 90,000 sq km in the eastern Himalayas disputed by Delhi and another 38,000 sq km in the west. The neighbours fought a full-scale war in the area in 1962, and tensions have flared into armed confrontations several times since, including in 2013 and again four years later. The latest confrontation has involved thousands of soldiers from both sides squaring off a few hundred metres from each other at four points in the unmarked border area. Trouble started in early May when Indian officials say Chinese soldiers entered an area controlled by India and started erecting tents and guard posts. The officials said the Chinese soldiers ignored repeated verbal warnings to leave, triggering shouting matches, stone-throwing and fistfights. Indian media reports say that the two armies have moved artillery guns in the region, but officials from both sides were negotiating and said to be gradually de-escalating the situation before Monday’s incident. Indian foreign-policy analysts have claimed the fresh tensions are the result of renewed Chinese assertiveness across its contested frontiers including in the South China Sea. Others have cited an Indian building spree of new roads and airstrips in the border area at 14,000 feet as a catalyst for Chinese activity in the Himalayan areas.