From correspondents in Asia Pacific, 06:01 PM IST

Two fighter jets belonging to China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) crashed after colliding during a drill Wednesday in northern China, officials said.

The accident occurred in Qingshuihe county in the suburbs of inner Mongolia region when the two Jian-8 planes attached to the PLA's military command based in the northeastern city of Shenyang collided and crashed in a village.

However, the pilots of both the planes survived with minor injuries by parachuting to safety moments before the crash, officials said.

The PLA began developing Jian-8s in 1964, when Chinese aeronautic engineers adapted a Russian MiG-21 design to produce the country's first home-made fighter plane.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)