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A dispute at a dormitory near a Foxconn plant in northern China last night led to a riot involving 2,000 employees lasting well into the early hours of this morning when police took control, with scores sent to hospital for treatement.

The giant Taiwanese ODM employs 79,000 at the plant which is believed to be manufacturing components for the new iPhone 5 among other things.

Engadget grabbed some photos showing pretty widespread damage at the site, before they were hastily deleted from microblogging platform Sina Weibo and Baidu Tieba.

Rumours on Tieba pointed to the riot having started because of a security guard hitting an employee, although Foxconn made no mention of this in its official statement, sent to The Reg this morning:

Foxconn can confirm that a personal dispute between several employees escalated into an incident involving some 2,000 workers at approximately 11 pm last night in a privately-managed dormitory near our manufacturing facility in Taiyuan in Shanxi province. The dispute was brought under control by local police at approximately 3 am this morning. According to police, some 40 individuals were taken to the hospital for medical attention and a number of individuals were arrested. The cause of this dispute is under investigation by local authorities and we are working closely with them in this process, but it appears not to have been work-related.

Despite Foxconn’s assurances, the Taiyuan plant has a history of worker unrest, with employees striking over pay in March this year.

More recently, the factory was the subject of an undercover report by a Chinese journalist, who detailed filthy dorm rooms, bullying by managers and all-but-compulsory overtime.

After that report, Foxconn issued a lengthy statement claiming it was “not perfect”, but would investigate and address the issues uncovered. ®

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