This is the astonishing moment a mobile phone bursts into flames at a repair store after a technician put it in a microwave.

CCTV footage from the store – in the city of Kahramanmaras, in the province of the same name, eastern Turkey – shows the door of the microwave on top of the counter suddenly burst open.

Then a metre-long sheet of flame shoots out of the oven.

Shop owner Hakan Ziba, 42, turns off the oven and cautiously fishes out the still-burning remains of the phone.

Hakan said: “Our customer handed in his mobile phone for a battery issue. We have often experienced difficulties with removing batteries from phones.

“In such cases, we quickly put them into our microwave to loosen the casing.

“I jumped up when I heard the explosion. I immediately put the device out of the microwave. It’s broken now and cannot be used anymore.”

“This could have happened in the hands of the customer.”

He said that the procedure to put the mobile phone in a special oven with very low heat to loosen the casing and remove the battery is normal. The problem, in this case, was that the battery was swollen.

Hakan underlined: “Customers should have their phones checked as soon as they experience any problems with the battery.

“People should not play games on their phones while charging them. This can be one of the reasons for battery damage.”