Twenty-six men were killed and 17 were injured when suspected militants opened fire at tourists in India's Jammu and Kashmir territory, police said.

Gunmen killed at least 26 people and injured a dozen others in the disputed Himalayan region of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, a rare assault on tourists in an area fraught by decades of insurgency and opposition to India’s rule.

Kashmir Resistance, also known as The Resistance Front, has claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir, the deadliest incident of its kind in India since the 2008 shootings in Mumbai.