China and the Philippines are engaged in a dispute over a confrontation between their vessels in the disputed South China Sea left a Philippine sailor injured.

The incident took place on Monday near the Second Thomas Shoal, home to a grounded Philippine warship, the BRP Sierra Madre, that Manila uses as a military outpost.

The Philippine military claims that a Chinese coastguard boat approached the outpost and harassed it, injuring one of its sailors with blows to the head from a wooden baton.

However,China’s coastguard has rejected the account, claiming that two Philippine boats had ignored warnings and struck first by ramming one of their patrol vessels.

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