Samsung Galaxy Note 7 catches fire in Highlands hotel room

The guest's phone caught fire as it was charging in the hotel room

A replacement Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, deemed safe by the manufacturers, caught fire in a Highlands hotel room.

The phone, belonging to a Chinese guest, burst into flames as it was charging in the room at the Highlander Hotel in Newtonmore.

Samsung has now permanently ceased production of the device after a number of phones caught fire.

Hotel receptionist Gabriel Sebestin said this was the guest's second phone.

"They had been through the same experience before," he said.

"The company changed the phone for them and told them it wouldn't happen again but it did."

'Shocked and scared'

Mr Sebestin said he was alerted to the fire when the hotel fire alarm went off at about 22:00.

The guest was in his room with his wife and daughter, who was thought to be in her 20s.

"The room was full of smoke and they said there had been flames. The phone was very hot," Mr Sebestin said.

"They were shocked and quite scared and upset as the same thing had happened to them before."

The incident happened at the Highlander Hotel in Newtonmore

The family were moved into another room for the night and left the next day. They kept the phone so they could send it back to Samsung.

The incident took place earlier in the week.

Owners of the model are expected to be able to return the phones for a refund or an exchange for a different Samsung phone.

Samsung said it was stopping sales of the device.

"We recently readjusted the production volume for thorough investigation and quality control, but putting consumer safety as top priority, we have reached a final decision to halt production of Galaxy Note 7s," the company said.

"For the benefit of consumers' safety, we stopped sales and exchanges of the Galaxy Note 7 and have consequently decided to stop production."

In September, Samsung recalled about 2.5 million phones after complaints of exploding batteries.

It later insisted that all replaced devices were safe.

However, that was followed by reports that those phones were catching fire too.