The Chinese naval exercises, in international waters off Australia’s eastern coast, while legal, have nonetheless sparked alarm in Australia and New Zealand.

Airlines have been contacted by Australia’s air traffic control agency warning them of reports of live fire off the country’s east coast where a Chinese navy task group has been operating, the agency and Australian officials said.

Australia's defense forces, joined by New Zealand, have been monitoring Chinese navy vessels since they were spotted last week.

China defence ministry spokesperson Wu Qian said on Sunday that Australian complaints over recent Chinese live-fire naval drills in international waters between Australia and New Zealand were "hyped up" and "inconsistent with the facts".

Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong says her government has warned international airlines flying between Australian airports and New Zealand to beware of Chinese warships conducting a live-fire ex

The defence ministry has hit back at Australia’s response to its naval exercises off the east coast, labelling Canberra’s protests as “unreasonable”.

A lawyer for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of fatally gunning down U.S. health insurance executive Brian Thompson in December, told a judge Friday that her client was illegally searched during his arrest and she would seek to exclude that evidence from his trial on state murder and terrorism charges.

China's Defense Ministry said Sunday that Australia had made “unreasonable accusations” and deliberately hyped the situation after three planes headed to New Zealand changed course in midflight because of live-fire drills by the Chinese navy.

Australia accused China on Saturday of failing to give satisfactory reasons for what it called inadequate notice of a live-fire drill in waters between Australia and New Zealand that forced airlines to divert flights.