Samsung Galaxy S3 explodes in sleeping boy's bed

A Samsung Galaxy S3 reportedly burned down in central Finland after having been left charging overnight. The device belonged to a Finnish schoolboy in Kajaanim who was awakened in the middle of the night to find that the burnt phone had left a gaping hole in his mattress. No one was seriously injured in the incident.

The three-year-old device reportedly overheated while it was charging. The boy had placed the smartphone in bed next to him and slept. He woke up in the middle of the night to find his room filled with smoke and his sheets burnt, the Finnish news agency YLE reported.

The boy's mother told YLE that she was shocked to wake up to the incident. She entered her son's smoke-filled room and moved the charred bedding to their garden. "In the worst case scenario it could have burnt the whole house down," she said. "We've at least learnt now only to charge phones during the day, and nowhere near fabric or flammable materials."

The device and the sim card were both left damaged beyond repair. According to the boy's mother, the phone's battery had apparently exploded, detaching itself from the hardware and burnt through the boy's sheets to create a hole in the mattress.

The family has decided not to contact Samsung or their insurance company, as they feel that the phone was too old for them to expect any compensation.

This is not the first case of smartphone explosion or overheating. This is also not the first instance of a Galaxy S3 exploding. In 2013, a Swiss teenager, Fanny Schlatter, was left with second and third degree burns when her S3 exploded while inside her pocket. Schlatter claimed that the explosion left her right thigh numb.