Jamie McKenzie
A Samsung smartphone caught fire in a Highland hotel room.
The Galaxy Note 7 was a replacement for a previous phone and belonged to a Chinese guest
It burst into flames as it was charging in the room at the Highlander Hotel in Newtonmore.
Samsung has now permanently ceased production of the device after a number of phones caught fire.
Hotel receptionist Gabriel Sebestin said that this was the guest’s second Samsung phone.
Mr Sebestin said: “They had been through the same experience before.
“The company changed the phone for them and told them it wouldn’t happen again but it did.”
Mr Sebestin said he was alerted to the fire when the hotel fire alarm went off at night earlier this week. It is understood the guest was staying in the room with his wife and daughter.
Mr Sebestin added “The room was full of smoke and they said there had been flames. The phone was very hot.
“They were shocked and quite scared and upset as the same thing had happened to them before.”
The family were moved into another room for the night and left the next day. They kept the phone so they could send it back to Samsung.
Samsung said it was stopping sales of the device, adding: “We recently readjusted the production volume for thorough investigation and quality control, but putting consumer safety as top priority, we have reached a final decision to halt production of Galaxy Note 7s.
“For the benefit of consumers’ safety, we stopped sales and exchanges of the Galaxy Note 7 and have consequently decided to stop production.”
In September, Samsung recalled about 2.5 million phones after complaints of exploding batteries.
It later insisted that all replaced devices were safe.
However, that was followed by reports that those phones were catching fire too.
