An Indian Air Force’s (IAF) Su-30 MKI aircraft has gone missing during a routine training mission near China's border yesterday.

The aircraft with two pilots on-board lost contact with the controlling station after it took off from Tezpur Airbase in the state of Assam, India.

It was 60km north-west of Tezpur when it lost radar and radio contact, the Indian Ministry of Defence stated.

The aircraft was declared overdue and search and rescue operations have been launched to locate the missing aircraft and the pilots.

Civil administration and military authorities were also requested to help search for the military aircraft.

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"The aircraft was declared overdue and search and rescue operations have been launched to locate the missing aircraft and the pilots."

The aircraft, which took off from Jodhpur Air Base, was on a routine training sortie when it crashed on 15 March.

Both pilots were able to successfully eject from the aircraft, which went down near Shivkar Kurla village, leaving three villagers injured.

The Sukhoi Su-30 MKI is a multirole combat fighter aircraft jointly developed by Sukhoi Design Bureau and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the IAF.

India signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Russia in October 2000, to start the licenced production of Su-30 MKIs at HAL's plant.

The Su-30 MKI fleet of IAF will be fitted with an air-launched version of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, which can strike targets within the range of 290km.