New Delhi: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday expressed his concerns over the intense clashes which unfolded between Indian and Chinese (PLA) troops in the Galwan Valley sector of Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control and appealed to both India and China to exercise restraint, a spokesperson said Tuesday.


Guterres's Associate Spokesperson Eri Kaneko said: "We are concerned about reports of violence and deaths along the Line of Actual Control between India and China."

She added: "We urge both sides to exercise maximum restraint. We take positive note of reports that the two countries are engaged in deescalating the situation."

The intense face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in Galwan Valley on Monday, during which no firing was reported, was probably the bloodiest confrontation between the armies of the two nations in the Ladakh sector since the 1962 Sino-India war.

WATCH VIDEO: UN Secy General Guterres 'Concerned' About Deaths Along LAC In Ladakh; Urges India, China To Exercise Restraint



Colonel B. Santosh Babu (Commanding Officer) of the 16 Bihar Regiment and two other Indian Army personnel were unfortunately killed in the clash along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh on Monday night. However, the Indian Army later released a statement disclosing that 20 personnel had been killed.

Unlike India, China has not officially said if there it had suffered casualties.However, as per military sources close to the matter, casualties have been inflicted on the Chinese troops with the numbers of death being over 40.

Hu Xijn, editor of the Global Times, tweeted that there were Chinese casualties but the government did not want to publish the numbers because they do not "want people of the two countries to compare the casualties number so to avoid stoking public mood. This is goodwill from Beijing."