iPhone explodes as Chinese worker opens the case closely (video)

This is the moment a mobile phone repair worker escaped getting hurt after a smartphone allegedly caught fire in his hands.

Ms Wang, who claimed to have bought her iPhone 6S Plus from the United States, found her phone getting hot and took it to the shop in east China to be fixed.

However, the fire and sparkles burst out as soon as the worker opened up the cover of the phone.

It is not yet known what caused the incident, and Apple is in touch with the customer to investigate the issue.

Previous incidents have often been caused by third party cables, unauthorised repair or external damage.

Ms Wang told Hangzhou News that the battery of her iPhone 6S Plus had been dying faster than usual. The handset was also said to have shut down on its own sometimes.

She decided to take her phone to the repair shop near Xiangjisi in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, on October 8 after finding it getting hot.

The worker told Ms Wang that the battery of her phone had swollen. He suggested its battery be changed.

Surveillance footage then captures the moment he opened the aluminium case.

Smoke and flame can be seen bursting out from the phone after a loud bang.

The man quickly threw the phone on the working station and ran away from the desk.

He explained to the reporter: 'Normally there is a plastic tape attached to the battery, which is placed on the case and what we need to do is to tear the plastic tape off.'

However, he said he could not tear off the tape completely due to the swollen battery.

'I guess there were some powder leaked from the battery and triggered physical reaction to blow up the phone.'

The man was not injured but the explosion had set his working station on fire.

The fire was quickly put out.