Uygur Autonomous Region have claimed that the woman died after being
electrocuted while using her iPhone.
The older sister of victim Ma Ailun said Saturday on Sina
Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, that Ma was
electrocuted while trying to answer a call on her iPhone
while the device was charging.
Ma Ailun bought the iPhone in December at an official Apple
store and was using the original charger to recharge the
phone when the incident occurred, her sister said.
Ma, who was planning her wedding on August 8, fell to the
floor when making a call with her iPhone 5, which was
being recharged at the time, Ma's sister said on her
microblog account.
"I want to warn everyone else not to make phone calls
when your mobile phone is recharging," she tweeted.
The sister's tweet was reposted more than 3,000 times. And
the microblogging site was flooded with posts urging fellow
users not to make calls while charging their phones.
"I hope that Apple Inc. can give us an explanation," her post
reads.
Ma's father, Ma Guanghui, confirmed that his daughter was
electrocuted, adding that her body showed signs of
electrocution.
Ma, a resident of Xinjiang's city of Changji, was previously
employed as a flight attendant at China Southern Airlines,
although she recently quit her job.
Local police confirmed that Ma did die of electrocution, but
they have yet to verify if her phone was involved in the
incident.
Ma's sister said via Sina Weibo that she hopes to seek justice
from Apple.
Apple said commented on the situation: "We are deeply
saddened to learn of this tragic incident and offer our
condolences to the … family. We will fully investigate and
co-operate with authorities in this matter."
Local police said they are continuing to investigate the case.
Experts said mobile phones have a low output of only 3 to 5
volts, which isn't enough to harm the human body.
People will feel an electric shock at about 36 volts. "However,
if the charger or the circuit has a problem, such as a broken
wire, it can lead to a shock of 220 volts," a senior physics
teacher at a Nanjing high school was quoted as saying in a
media report.
Xu Xuelu, an expert with the Nanjing Appliance Repairing
Association, recommended people avoid making calls with
their mobile phone while it is being recharged.
In 2010, a man in northeast China was killed by an electric
shock when making a phone call with a handset that was
being recharged with an unauthorized charger, according to
the China Consumers Association.
