Apple suspends sales of iPhone 4S in China after riot

Apple suspends sales of iPhone 4S in China after riot

BEIJING (Reuters) - Faced with a near-riot Friday for the release of the iPhone 4S, the direction of the main Apple store in Beijing has suspended sales of the device, causing a stampede and angry customers who bombed showcase their eggs.

After these incidents in the fashionable Sanlitun, Apple has suspended sales in all its stores in China, adding that the device was available on the Internet or Apple authorized resellers.

Clashes erupted between security personnel from the Apple Store and customers when the store manager came and preached to a crowd at 7:00 refrigerated, some of whom had spent the night outside, the iPhone 4S would do their not provided as expected.

The police had to strive to keep dissatisfied customers and, in photos published on the Internet, we see a man bring a bag of rotten eggs which then takes the crowd to throw them on the window of the shop.

"We have cold and hungry. They told us they do not sell (the unit). Why, why?" Exclaimed a man in his twenties in front of a camera Reuters Television.

"I started queuing at about 23:00 and beyond in the queue, the place was packed," he told Xiatong Huang, 26.

"Around 5:00, people who had arrived in the square and the queue has completely disappeared. Everybody was fighting, several people were injured," he added, explaining that police had then hit the crowd .

Incredible demand

The iPhone 4S, latest smartphone featuring the Apple brand, was highly anticipated for its release in China and 21 other countries on Friday.

"The demand for the iPhone 4S is amazing and our stores in China are already out, Apple said in a statement. Unfortunately we were not able to open our shop in Sanlitun because of the influx, and to ensure the safety of our customers and our employees, the iPhone is not available at this time in our shops in Beijing and Shanghai. "

Apple products are extremely popular in China, where many want to be among the first to offer new products.

It seems that many scalpers had crept among the customers of the Apple Store Sanlitun Friday, the parallel market is highly developed.

According to the New China news agency, dealers hired a thousand people to get copies of the iPhone 4S Friday.

Huang Xiatong described groups of 50 people wearing the same hat or similar gloves and said police had spoken with their leaders.

Around 10:00 am, the crowd had left the vicinity of the Apple Store Sanlitun, where police continued to guard. In the shop of the Xidan district, where the sale took place, there was not an iPhone at 09:00.

Ziyuan Yang, Melanie Lee and Sabrina Mao, Gregory Blachier for the French service, edited by Benoit Van Overstraeten