Man's iPhone 6 explodes and melts his shorts (Photos)

Gareth Clear, a British mountain biker has described the horrific moment his Apple iPhone 6 exploded in his shorts. Gareth Clear was on his own riding around Manly in Australia yesterday - a track he has ridden a 100 times - when he fell from his bike and landed on the mobile in his back pocket. 

As he got up he almost immediately noticed smoke and then seconds later felt searing pain as the phone 'snap exploded' with extremely high temperatures.

Then the phone burnt through Gareth's pocket - melting his shorts as it melted itself - and then through two layers of skin on his upper right thigh.

The 36-year-old management consultant - who is originally from Winchester in Hampshire but moved Down Under six years ago - burnt his hands trying to at first remove the melting phone before trying to get his shorts off.

Gareth's injuries needed urgent medical attention, including skin graft surgery at a specialist burns unit.

He explains: "I lost my footing and embarrassingly I fell. I leaned on my butt and put my arm out to cushion the fall when I hit the ground.

"After three or four seconds I got back up and saw smoke coming out of my behind and thought that was weird.

"But what happened next I can't even describe... it was nothing I could describe."

"My instinct was to grab (the phone) but I burnt my hands. There wasn't an explosion but a loud snap. I was trying to rip the shorts off as it melted through them on to my leg.

"The lithium inside the battery was like black lava spewing out of the side and the metal started to bend.

"My leg was completely black - the 'snap explosion' had discharged everything."

Luckily Gareth - who lives in Bondi - had a water bottle with him and squeezed its contents onto the burns.

He managed to get the hot phone between two bits of wood and push the bike back 2km - but admits he was scared.

He explained: "I was sh****** myself. I was isolated but bleeding. The worse thing was the smell - like a chemistry experiment at school.

"I was worried about that - the residue/poison getting into my bloodstream."

Gareth has been treated at two hospitals - Manly General and Royal North Shore Burns Hospital - in the last 24 hours and is now recovering at the home of a friend.

Man's iPhone 6 explodes and melts his shorts (Photos)