Foxconn confirms worker riot at Taiyuan factory

(Credit: Jay Greene/CNET)

Foxconn, a contract manufacturer to Apple, closed a northern China factory for the day following an early Monday riot that, according to the company, began as a fight between workers. Details remain scarce.

The company said several people were injured and sent to the hospital after the incident, and that some were also detained by police. The factory in question employees about 79,000 workers.

Other reports, however, described a riot possibly involving as many as 2,000 people and, by one account, potentially sparked when a guard struck a worker. Photos posted by a user on the Chinese Internet service Baidu depicted lines of helmet-clad riot police surrounding what appeared to be workers and rooms littered with detritus and glass from broken windows.

The video above contains YouTube footage that appears to be filmed early Monday morning China time near Foxconn's Taiyuan plant. CNET has not been able verify this footage. 

Earlier this month, a Shanghai Evening Post journalist claimed to have gone undercover at the Taiyuan plant. He described his orientation, plant security and his job, which was supposedly to manufacture the back plate of the iPhone 5.

Back in March, the head of human resources at the Taiyuan factory reportedly told a South Korean newspaper that Foxconn had "just got[ten] the order" for the iPhone 5. That was just a few weeks after a reported strike involving hundreds of workers over a pay dispute at the Taiyuan plant.

We'll update this story as we know more.

Updated 8:46 p.m. PT: with more details.