An Apple logo hangs above the entrance to the Apple store on 5th Avenue in the Manhattan borough of New York City, U.S., December 5, 2016.

An Apple logo hangs above the entrance to the Apple store on 5th Avenue in the Manhattan borough of New York City, U.S., December 5, 2016. Reuters/Brendan McDermid

It seems that flaming smartphones have become a norm these past few months. Following the Samsung Note 7 debacle, Apple has had its share of supposedly exploding iPhones, albeit to a lesser degree. But now that new reports have surfaced claiming that the world’s most popular mobile phone is gradually becoming combustible, it doesn’t look good at all for the Cupertino-based company.

A government-own consumer watchdog in China said that it has received eight separate reports from iPhone owners claiming that their Apple handsets burst into flames. In its defence, the tech giant pointed out that the said iPhone units’ “external physical damage” caused the combustion. Apple made it clear that its smartphones are safe to use and that the issue is not a safety concern.

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The tech giant said that it was done looking into the cause of the exploding iPhones. Apple concluded that the handsets had gone through “thermal events” due to the “external physical damage” inflicted on them. The company insists that the issue will never be as catastrophic as the Samsung Note 7 fiasco.

“The units we've analysed so far have clearly shown that external physical damage happened to them, which led to the thermal event,” said Apple in a statement as quoted by Yahoo. “We treat safety as a top priority and have found no cause for concern with these products.”

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Apple also refuted claims that it was unable to act quickly on the situation following the consumer watchdogs’ push for the company to attend to its customer’s complaints. The council’s report stated that a female iPhone 6s Plus owner badly damaged her phone’s display screen after it exploded. It also left the back portion of the phone and its battery totally blackened.

The council claimed that it had received a six-fold increase in Apple-related complaints in the past couple of months. The complaints include the exploding iPhones and the unexpected shutdowns of certain iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s handsets that have recently plagued a number of Apple users worldwide.