Story highlights The intercept took place approximately 80 nautical miles east of the Chinese mainland in international airspace

Sunday's incident follows a series of Chinese intercepts of US aircraft over the last few months

(CNN) A Chinese fighter jet performed an "unsafe" intercept of a US plane Sunday while it was flying in international airspace over the East China Sea, according to a Pentagon spokesman, the latest in a series of similar encounters in the region.

The Chinese J-10 fighter jet was armed and came as close as 300 feet in front of the US EP-3 reconnaissance plane, causing the Navy aircraft to take "evasive action," a US defense official told CNN. The official added that a second armed J-10 Chinese fighter jet was involved in the intercept but only one of the aircraft acted in a "unsafe" way.

The "EP-3, flying in international airspace in the East China Sea, was intercepted by two Chinese J-10s," US Navy Capt. Jeff Davis told reporters Monday at the Pentagon.

Davis said the "unsafe" behavior involved one of the Chinese fighters flying underneath the US aircraft "at a high rate of speed," and then slowing and pulling up in front of the US plane, prompting the EP-3's traffic collision avoidance system to go-off and forcing the American pilot to "to take evasive action to prevent the possibility of collision."

The intercept took place approximately 80 nautical miles east of the Chinese mainland in international airspace, according to the US official.