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A VIDEO has caught the moment an exploding iPhone forced a woman to bolt from her car on a busy motorway in China as the deadly gadget kept catching fire.

The footage, obtained by Asia Wire, shows the woman driving along when her phone suddenly pops and emits a small flame followed by an even larger eruption just seconds later.

 The iPhone turns into a fireball forcing the woman to slam on the brakes as cars drive past
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The iPhone turns into a fireball forcing the woman to slam on the brakes as cars drive pastCredit: Asia Wire
 The smoke billowing from the Apple device fills up the woman's car
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The smoke billowing from the Apple device fills up the woman's carCredit: Asia Wire

After stopping amid the first explosion, the woman carries on driving due to the moving traffic and to avoid obstructing the innermost lane.

Smoke can be seen filling the car as it continues to roll along the motorway.

Then, some 20 seconds later, her iPhone 6 abruptly explodes again, leaving her screaming and slamming on the brakes.

The woman can be heard getting out of her car and continuing to cry and scream while standing on the road, with other drivers passing her.

 Moments earlier the phone had caught fire for the first time while sitting on the dashboard
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Moments earlier the phone had caught fire for the first time while sitting on the dashboardCredit: Asia Wire

She tells a motorist who has stopped to check on her: "My phone exploded! My phone exploded!"

It appears the explosion was caused by the phone's faulty battery, which had been replaced at a repair shop in China in February, according to the woman's husband.

He said: "She was driving alone; no one touched the phone. It just suddenly blew up. She wasn't charging or even using it at the time

"When we bought the battery...in February, they told us it was genuine," he explained, adding: "They're refusing to take further responsibility and won't compensate us."

He continued: "We asked them for a new phone. They say they can only give us a second-hand one. It's like they're squeezing us like a tube of toothpaste. They'll squeeze us until we run out of patience and give up, then the case is closed for them."

 The badly damaged iPhone continued to smoke up the woman's car after she'd fled
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The badly damaged iPhone continued to smoke up the woman's car after she'd fledCredit: Asia Wire

Some social media users on Chinese platforms, however, are showing little sympathy for the couple for leaving the iPhone on the dashboard in the baking sun.

"It's extremely hot in the summer and you leave your phone exposed to the sun. It's obviously going to explode, you idiot! And you're blaming the phone?" wrote Abren Guanxianshi.

Temperatures in Shanghai's Minhang district, where the woman was driving, are currently even hotter than in the UK, reaching a peak of 37-degrees Celsius this week.

On its website, Apple warns that long-term exposure to the sun or heat can cause permanent damage to the blower's batteries.

And as the case of randomly exploding Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones proved in 2016, lithium-ion batteries can combust if they're damaged or defective.

The fact that this phone's battery was replaced at an allegedly dodgy repairs shop could also be to blame.

This isn't the first time an iPhone has exploded this year.

Back in May, a CCTV camera caught sight of an iPhone exploding in a phone shop in Las Vegas in close proximity to an employee.

Have your Apple gadgets ever caught fire? Let us know in the comments.


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