Australia will ‘watch every move’ of Chinese warships detected off east coast

Ships' presence off east coast follows incident in South China Sea in which a Chinese fighter jet released flares in front of Australian military plane

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Australia will watch every move" of three Chinese warships which have been detected off the country's east coast, the defence minister has said.

Three People's Liberation Army-Navy vessels - the Jiangkai-class frigate Hengyang, the Renhai-class cruiser Zunyi and the Fuchi-class replenishment vessel Weishanhu - were detected off north-east Queensland last week and have been surveilled since as they have sailed south. The Financial Times reported the ships were about 150 nautical miles off the coast of Sydney.

Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email