PESHAWAR: A Pakistani reconnaissance drone has crashed in a restive northwestern tribal region after developing a technical fault, security officials said on Friday.

The unmanned military aircraft was on a surveillance mission when it came down on Thursday night in Azam Warsak area, west of Wana, the main town of the South Waziristan tribal region, a senior security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Earlier, it was reported that a drone suspected to be a US unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) had crashed in the Kaza Panga area of South Waziristan, however, it was unclear whether it belonged to Pakistan or the US, which regularly conducts drone strikes in tribal agencies.

Another official told AFP the crash and said that Taliban militants surrounded the site and later took possession of the wreckage.

However, Pakistani intelligence officials speaking to Dawn.com said the wreckage of the three-camera surveillance drone, which had a Pakistani flag painted on it, was in possession of Pakistani security personnel.

Pakistan manufactures its own small drones which the army, navy and air force use for reconnaissance and do not have the lethal capability of US drones which target militant hideouts in the country’s tribal regions.

In July last year a Pakistan navy drone crashed near an oil refinery in the suburbs of Karachi after hitting a bird while on a routine flight.