Dell laptop snapped ablaze in China

Pictures posted on Chinese-language site hi-pda.com, will cause a flutter in INQ readers' hearts, reminded of how these pictures of a Japanese exploding model whipped up a storm of international hysteria.

So commonplace have such events become that children now gather to giggle at how a high-tech piece of kit can spontaneously combust, filling caverous halls with noxious gases and fizzing bits of plastic.

In the old days, folk just looked on in amazed horror.