China Foxconn Plant Shut After Riot Erupts

A riot erupted yesterday at a Foxconn plant in China, triggering a shutdown of the operation, reports the BBC. Windows were smashed and a guard tower toppled as riot police moved in at the Taiyuan factory, reports NBC. The clash was reportedly triggered when a factory guard struck a worker yesterday, according to NBC. A Foxconn official said the rampage didn't appear to be work related, but that a "personal dispute" escalated into an incident involving about 2,000 workers, injuring 40 of them.

Several people were arrested at the plant, which employes 79,000 workers. The factory, responsible for manufacturing the back plate of the new iPhone 5, was hit by strikes in March after workers said they didn't receive promised pay hikes. The Taiwanese-owned Foxconn company, which does most of Apple's product production and assembly, is infamous for the string of worker suicides that prompted factories to install anti-suicide jump nets. Apple has vowed to improve conditions at Foxconn, but is also beginning now to work with another Taiwanese company, Pegatron. (More Foxconn stories.)