iPhone plant closes China unit after clash

Foxconn said in a statement the incident escalated from what it called a personal dispute between several employees at around 11 p.m. on Sunday in a privately managed dormitory, and was brought under control by police at around 3 a.m.

The cause of this dispute is under investigation by local authorities and we are working closely with them in this process, but it appears not to have been work-related, Foxconn said. Hon Hai said about 2,000 workers were involved.

Comments posted online, however, suggested security guards may have been to blame.

In a posting on the Chinese Twitter-like microblog site Sina Weibo, user Jo-Liang said that four or five security guards beat a worker almost to death.

FRUSTRATION

Another user, Fan de Sa Hai, quoted a friend from Taiyuan as saying guards beat up two workers from Henan province and in response, other workers set bed quilts on fire and tossed them out of dormitory windows.

The accounts could not be independently confirmed.

The state-run Xinhua news agency quoted a senior official with the Taiyuan city government as saying investigators initially determined the fight broke out as workers from Shandong Province clashed with workers from Henan.

The agency reported earlier that about 5,000 police were sent to end the violence, according to Taiyuan City's public security bureau.

Foxconn cited police as saying 40 people were taken to hospital and a number were arrested, while Xinhua added that three people were in serious condition.

Calls to the Taiyuan police were

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