An iPhone user has told of his shock after he saw the device's charger melt in his hand.
Smoke started billowing from the end of James Ward's phone cable just a few minutes after he plugged it in to the mains.
The cable then began to melt, instantly filling his home in Romford, Essex with the smell of burning rubber.
The 25-year-old electrician says he knew instantly that the device had a serious fault, and worried for the safety of his young daughter.
'I started to panic,' he said. 'I know all about electrics, and stuff like that really shouldn't happen.
'I normally plug my phone in and go to bed, but I had a couple of emails to check. If I had gone to sleep, I dread to think what would have happened.
'I've got an 18-month-old daughter - the consequences of what could have happened don't bear thinking about.'
He bought the iPhone 5 and official 'Lightning' charger from an EE store about six months ago.
Danger: Mr Ward worries that the malfunction could have seriously harmed his family
'I don't know what caused it to heat up, I didn't do anything different and the cable hadn't frayed at all,' Mr Ward said.
'I'm never going to leave my phone unattended again - I don't want to put my family at risk and this happening once was once too often for my liking.'
Both Apple and EE have failed to respond to a request for comment on Mr Ward's case.
The eight-pin Lightning connector has been a source of controversy ever since it was introduced to coincide with the launch of the iPhone 5 in 2012.
New: The electrician says he bought the Apple charger, left, from an EE store just six months ago; an iPhone 5 is pictured right in a file photo
Apple was accused of costing its customers extra money by forcing them to buy a new cable rather than reusing old ones.
Last year there were a number of reported accidents involving chargers for Apple devices, although some are believed to have been connected to malfunctioning fake connectors.
In July, an air stewardess in China died when she was electrocuted after talking on the phone while it was being charged on a wet charger.
And in August, a father from Cheshire said that he was thrown across the room when he tried to unplug his daughter's iPad from the mains.
SOURCE-DAILYM
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