Thailand has launched fighter jets against its neighbour Cambodia as armed clashes break out in a disputed border area.

“F-16 fighter jet dropped [two] bombs on the road leading to Wat Kaew Seekha Kiri Svarak Pagoda,” Cambodia’s defence ministry said on Thursday, referring to an area on Cambodia and Thailand’s disputed border.

“All of these areas are within Cambodian territory.”

CNN reports that Thailand said it had readied six F-16 jets, and later claimed to have “destroyed” two Cambodian regional military headquarters.

Cambodia denounced what it described as Thailand’s “brutal, barbaric and violent military aggression”, its statement said.

It said the Thai actions were a breach of international law and “pose an extreme danger not only to regional peace and stability but also to the foundations of the international rules-based order”.

Each country has accused the other of firing the first shots in the renewed border clash, which comes after weeks of simmering tension and diplomatic spats.

Late on Wednesday, Thailand recalled its ambassador to Cambodia and said it would expel Cambodia’s envoy in Bangkok, after a second Thai soldier in a week lost a limb to a landmine it said had been laid recently in the disputed area.

Thailand’s military said Cambodia had deployed a surveillance drone before sending troops with heavy weapons to an area near the disputed Ta Moan Thom temple along the eastern border between the two nations, about 360 kilometres from the capital Bangkok

Cambodian troops opened fire and two Thai soldiers were wounded, a Thai army spokesperson said, adding Cambodia had used multiple weapons, including rocket launchers.

A spokesperson for Cambodia’s defence ministry, however, said was an unprovoked incursion by Thai troops and Cambodian forces had responded in self-defence.

In a Facebook post, Cambodia’s influential former premier Hun Sen said two Cambodian provinces had been shelling by the Thai military.

Thailand’s acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said the situation was delicate.

“We have to be careful,” he said. “We will follow international law.”

Thais who have fled the border clashes taken shelter in north-eastern Thailand. Photo: AAP

Thailand and Cambodia have contested sovereignty at various points along their 8170-kilometre land border for more than a century. It has led to skirmishes over several years and at least a dozen deaths, including during a week-long exchange of artillery in 2011.

Tensions were reignited in May following the killing of a Cambodian soldier during a brief exchange of gunfire. That has since escalated into a full-blown diplomatic crisis and triggered armed clashes.

An attempt by Thai premier Paetongtarn Shinawatra to resolve the recent tensions via a call with Hun Sen, the contents of which were leaked, kicked off a political storm in Thailand, leading to her suspension by a court.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Chamnan Chuenta, governor of Thailand’s Surin Province, asked residents of the district abutting the temple to shelter in their homes and prepare for evacuation.

Cambodia has many landmines left over from its civil war decades ago, numbering in the millions according to de-mining groups.

But Thailand maintains landmines have been placed at the border area recently. Cambodia said that was a baseless allegation.

-with AAP