The Philippines government said a Chinese warship has entered an area it claims in the South China Sea and has run aground on a shoal, as tensions continue between the two countries over a separate territorial dispute.

Foreign affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said today that Manila wants Beijing to explain why the Chinese frigate became stuck on Half Moon Shoal, about 70 miles from the western province of Palawan. Defence department spokesman Peter Paul Galvez said a military aircraft spotted six other Chinese ships near the stricken vessel.

Earlier this year Manila and Beijing became locked in a months-long naval stand-off at Scarborough Shoal, another area claimed by both nations in the South China Sea.