India on Wednesday successfully tested a low-altitude interceptor missile which destroys incoming ballistic missiles, Times of India reported.

The missile fired off Abdul Kalam Island "successfully destroyed" the incoming "enemy" Prithvi missile, Indian defence officials claimed.

The test is a step towards making the country's two-tier ballistic missile defence (BMD) system, which incorporates both low-altitude and high-altitude interceptor missiles, operational. It will be at least another two years before the interceptor missile is ready for deployment to protect sensitive targets.

The Prithvi missile was launched from the integrated test range at Chandipur over Bay of Bengal at 10:15am.

"All the mission objectives were successfully met. The weapon system radars tracked the target and provided the initial guidance to the interceptor which could precisely home on to the target and destroyed it in the endo-atmospheric layer," India's Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

"The complete event, including the engagement and destruction, was tracked by a number of electro-optical tracking systems using infrared imagery. Radars and telemetry stations tracked the target and the interceptor till the destruction of the target," the statement added.