A large explosion at Apple partner Foxconn's Chengdu manufacturing plant in southwestern China killed two people and injured another 16 late Friday, according to Chinese media reports.

Fire fighters had brought the situation under control, The Wall Street Journal reported Foxconn as saying.

The cause of the explosion, which reportedly ripped through the facility's "polishing plant" at around 7 p.m. local time, was not known. Foxconn said it was cooperating with a local police investigation. The Chengdu Municipal government confirmed two fatalities and 16 injured, including three seriously, according to The Journal.

The government "appeared to rule out foul play," according to the newspaper.

A first-person account (video below) published by MIC Gadget described a chaotic scene following the blast, with dozens of emergency vehicles arriving at the facility. According to MIC Gadget's Herman Lai, the explosion occurred in the plant's A5 building, which reportedly houses the production line for Apple's iPad 2.

Foxconn, a subsidiary of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry, assembles iPads, iPhones and iPods for Apple, its most prominent customer. The contract manufacturer also makes Amazon's Kindle ereaders and counts Acer, Asus, Intel, Cisco, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Nintendo, Nokia, Sony and Vizio among its clients.

Incidents at Foxconn's manufacturing plants have been a source of controversy in recent years for Hon Hai Precision Industry and its high-profile customers. A string of worker suicides put the spotlight on working conditions and pay rates at Foxconn's Shenzen plant, which houses some 420,000 employees inside the factory complex.

Foxconn announced a series of pay raises last June in the wake of the suicides, including a 30-percent, across-the-board pay hike and a 66-percent performance-based raise for employees who get good marks following a three-month evaluation.

But last month there was more scandalous news involving Foxconn when it was revealed that three employees had been charged by Chinese authorities with leaking iPad 2 designs to third-party accessory suppliers. [/p]

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