Meanwhile, fire was exchanged along the Line of Control (LoC), the 740km (460-mile) de facto border separating the Indian and Pakistani-controlled areas of Kashmir, for a fifth straight night. Pakistan said it had downed a drone, with fears of an escalation between the nuclear powers bubbling.

The government of Indian-administered Kashmir announced it had shut 48 out of 87 government-approved tourist destinations in the scenic Himalayan region.

No timeframe was given for the measure, as panic-stricken tourists sought an early exit.

Meanwhile, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres spoke with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to urge the two countries to de-escalate tensions.

Guterres “expressed his deep concern at rising tensions between India and Pakistan and underscored the need to avoid a confrontation that could result in tragic consequences”, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

The UN secretary-general “offered his Good Offices to support de-escalation effort”, Dujarric added.

A series of tit-for-tat diplomatic measures has followed, including the cancellation of visas and the recall of diplomats.

India has shut its border with Pakistan and banished Pakistani citizens. Pakistan has announced border and airspace closures and threatened to ditch the 1972 Simla Agreement that normalised relations to some extent between the two countries.

New Delhi also announced last week that it was suspending the Indus Waters Treaty, a 1960 agreement which feeds 80 percent of Pakistan’s irrigated agriculture.