Tests carried out on an Apple iPhone 5 after its owner complained that it exploded while he was using it have shown the phone blew up after a screw slipped into its battery tray and caused a short circuit.
National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) secretary-general Thakorn Tantasit announced the test results yesterday.
He said the iPhone's importer insisted the screw was not an original component packed with the device.
The iPhone explosion, reported by businessman Suwicha Uasomsaksakul in March, was the first such case in Thailand of the Apple product blowing up. Mr Suwicha said he had been talking on the two-month-old device for about 30 seconds when it became too hot to touch. He dropped it on the ground where it exploded.
Mr Suwicha lodged a complaint with the police.
According to Mr Thakorn, the NBTC had asked Exponent, an American independent advisory company, to examine the phone.
Apple South Asia (Thailand), the importer of the iPhone 5 handset, conveyed the results of Exponent's tests on the faulty device to the NBTC.
Apart from the loose screw that induced the short circuit, the probe also said another screw on the outside cover of the phone was set in a wrong position.
It showed the phone's cover had been opened with something that was not the specific tool required for the task, the report said.
Mr Thakorn said the NBTC will conduct its own investigation into the explosion to see if its results match the tests done by Exponent.