The Indian army says 20 soldiers have been killed in a clash with Chinese troops on a disputed Himalayan border.
The army raised its death toll from three to 20 Indian soldiers, and said in a statement the two sides have "disengaged" from the disputed Galwan area, where they clashed overnight on Monday.
The army originally reported three Indian soldiers had died, but later on Tuesday said 17 additional soldiers succumbed to injuries they suffered in the sub-zero temperatures of the high-altitude terrain.
China has accused Indian forces of carrying out "provocative attacks" on its troops and has not said if any of its soldiers died.
Thousands of soldiers on both sides have been facing off for more than a month.
The clash, during which neither side fired any shots, according to Indian officials, is the first deadly confrontation between the two Asian giants since 1975.
Retired Indian diplomat Vivek Katju said the clash was a dramatic departure from the four-decades-old status quo of troops from the two countries facing off without fatalities.
"The political class and the security class as a whole will have to do very serious thinking about the road ahead," he said.
The Indian army said in a statement earlier on Tuesday that a "violent faceoff" took place in Galwan Valley in the Ladakh region on Monday night, "with casualties on both sides".
Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian gave no details of any casualties on the Chinese side.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, shake hands with leaders at the BRICS summit in Goa, India in 2016. Source: AP
Minister Zhao said China had strongly protested the incident while still being committed to maintaining "peace and tranquillity" along the disputed and heavily militarised border.
"But what is shocking is that on June 15, the Indian troops seriously violated the consensus of the two sides, crossed the border illegally twice and carried out provocative attacks on Chinese personnel, resulting in serious physical conflicts between the two border forces," Mr Zhao said.
India's Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement the incident happened after "an attempt by the Chinese side to unilaterally change the status quo" in the Galwan Valley.
Thousands of soldiers from the two countries, backed by armoured trucks and artillery, have been facing off just a few hundred metres apart for more than a month in the Ladakh region near Tibet.
Army officers and diplomats have held a series of meetings to try to end the impasse, with no breakthrough.
Two Indian security officials familiar with latest developments who wished to remain anonymous told The Associated Press that soldiers from the two sides engaged in fistfights and stone-throwing, which led to the casualties.
Both said no shots were fired by either side.
