Stefan Mileschin

A BlackBerry which "burst into flames" has left an 11 year old schoolboy with serious burns.

Kian McCreath was woken in the middle of the night when the Curve 9320 smartphone, bought as a gift for his brother, combusted and set his bed alight.

The boy fled from his room after waking up with his legs caught in a fire at the bottom of his bed. He was rushed to hospital with serious burns to his legs and feet after plastic stuck to his skin, which are reportedly permanently scarred.

The family is demanding the mobile is recalled from shops in time for Christmas.

One mum told TechEye that the story was "disgraceful".

"How can a company that makes so much money not research and ensure their products are safe?" she asked. "They know they will be going to kids, especially now".

RIM needs this PR disaster like it needs a hole in the head. Still popular with high school students in the UK, largely because of its BBM service, the troubled company has been betting the farm on the delayed Blackberry 10 handsets.

While this may well be an unfortunate freak incident of a faulty phone unfortunately making its way past quality control, the idea that its devices could explode and burn the house down will not win many people over, especially parents.

RIM said that the handset, which had been bought by Kian's father from a shop in Birmingham a fortnight before, would be stripped down and investigated.

However, it said that it had not yet received the handset or battery charger to carry out the technical review. It also dodged demands that the model be taken off the shelf.

http://news.techeye.net/mobile/11-ye...ckberry-horror