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An explosion at a factory in Eastern China has killed 75 people, injuring hundreds more.

The dust explosion at a car hub cap factory, has triggered a nationwide halt at factories involved in metal polishing while health and safety checks are performed.

It's thought the delays could impact on Foxconn, a key part of Apple's supply chain, who recently took on 10,000 new staff to cope with the demand for iPhone 6.

The national work safety authority have reportedly sent inspectors to all chinese factories performing metal polishing including Foxconn's facility in Kunshan.

The Foxconn factory is involved in the assembly of the next generation smartphone, slated for release in mid-October, including polishing its aluminium body, according to Chinese website TechWeb.

The factory in Jiangsu province where the explosion took place makes hubcaps for car manufacturers, including General Motors.

Almost 200 were injured in the blast, which killed 44 people instantly.

A doctor, speaking anonymously via state broadcaster CCTV's account on social network Weibo said "In my 20 years of work, I've never seen so many patients with burns on over 80% of their bodies."

Apple are expected to announce the new iPhone at a press event on September 16th.

Insiders say at least one model is expected to be released a month later on October 14th - though it is not known if the delays in their Chinese production chain will delay this date.

Apple are planning an unprecedented production run, with manufacturers being asked to assemble between 50 and 70m units before the phone's launch.

Two models of the devices are understood to be in production with 4.7 and 5.5 inch screens. There's been some speculation that the larger model will be released later to avoid competition between the two models.