A cell phone exploded in the hands of an eight year old, almost severing three of his fingers and leaving with severe burns on his chest. The boy is undergoing treatment and is out of danger. The incident took place at RS Pendekal in Tuggali mandal, Kurnool, on Sunday.
V Jagan Achari, a Class 3 student of a private school, was playing games on a China-made phone that was left for charging by one of his parents. The phone heated up and then exploded.
Upon hearing the child’s screams, the father, V Maddilety Achari, rushed Jagan to the Pathikonda Government Hospital from where he was referred to the Kurnool General Hospital.
Phones use lithium-ion batteries which can explode either when punctured or are faulty – this is when we see it overheating.
In June, a Xiaomi Redmi 4A phone used by a resident of Shamshabad, Chitti Babu, exploded while he was about to answer a phone call. He was able to avoid injuries as he noticed that the phone was hot and was giving off smoke. He threw the phone to the ground just in time as it exploded.
An Andhra Pradesh resident also had a similar experience when his Xiaomi phone exploded in his pocket in 2017.The resulting fire left him with severe burn injuries on his thigh. Suriyakiran, the victim, had bought the phone barely 20 days earlier.
In May this year, 35-year-old Srinivas Goud, a resident of Singoor village in Pulkal mandal, died when the cell phone he was using exploded. The cell phone reportedly exploded due to a short circuit as he was using ear-phones while charging the gadget.