Australia has told China it has serious concerns about injuries to its navy divers by sonar pulses from a Chinese destroyer inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone this week.

A People’s Liberation Army-Navy destroyer ignored requests to keep clear of the divers, Defence Minister Richard Marles said in a statement on Saturday. They had been freeing nets that had become entangled around propellers of the Australian navy’s HMAS Toowoomba, which was conducting operations in the area on Tuesday to support United Nations sanctions.