India tests new nuclear-capable missile that can hit Beijing and Europe

India test launched a new nuclear-capable missile on Thursday that would give it, for the first time, the capability of striking the major Chinese cities of Beijing and Shanghai, according to television news channels.

The government has hailed the Agni-V missile, with a range of 5,000km, as a major boost to its efforts to counter China's regional dominance and become an Asian power in its own right.

'It will be a quantum leap in India's strategic capability,' Ravi Gupta, spokesman for India's Defence Research and Development Organisation, which built the missile, said before the launch.

Indian media reported the missile was launched just after 8am local time (10.30am Singapore time) from Wheeler Island off India's east coast. News channel Times Now showed footage of what it described as the missile streaking through the sky.

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