A Thai man who had his right leg and five toes on this left foot amputated after his mobile phone exploded is suing Nokia for Bt1m (£13,650) in damages.

Prasit Sriseeluang, 50 - who had his handset tucked in his shirt pocket at the time of the accident - was working near a high-voltage power pole when his phone rang. The handset then exploded, causing serious injuries to the welder.

Nokia Thailand has denied that the handset was faulty.

The Finnish mobile phone giant has been plagued by a string of reports of exploding handsets but is adamant that each of the cases was down to counterfeit batteries.

In December Nokia began applying a holographic sticker to its mobile phone batteries to prevent fake power packs being inadvertently purchased as the real thing.

A senior exec said the authentication programme "directly attack[ed] the counterfeiters who manufacture potentially unsafe batteries". ®

Related stories

Nokia hologram to expose fake, unsafe batteries
Nokia batteries not safe either - Belgian watchdog
Nokia phone explodes in Finland
Another Nokia phone explodes
Nokia phone explodes - again
Woman burned by exploding cellphone
HK customs seize £600k fake mobile phone kit
Apple recalls 15in PowerBook batteries
Dell issues adaptor electric shock warning
Kyocera recalls exploding PalmOS phone battery
Compaq recalls fiery laptop adapters