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Foxconn factory resumes production after huge riot

One-day closure after melee involving 2,000 workers won't affect supply to clients, a spokesman for the China-based company tells Reuters.

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The Foxconn entrance at the Shenzhen facility. Jay Greene/CNET

Production has resumed at a Foxconn factory in northern China after a riot involving thousands of employees forced the factory to close.

A Foxconn representative told Reuters that production resumed Tuesday and that the one-day suspension of production would have no affect on supply to clients.

"We have 79,000 people working in Taiyuan campus, and we always have spare inventory," said Foxconn spokesman Louis Woo.

Foxconn, which builds many Apple products, was forced to shut down its Taiyuan factory early Monday after an hours-long riot involving roughly 2,000 employees broke out at 11 p.m. local time Sunday, possibly sparked when a guard struck a worker. About 40 individuals were taken to the hospital and an undisclosed number of individuals were arrested.

Promising to reopen the plant Tuesday, Foxconn has declined to comment on what sparked the riot, downplaying the violence as an "incident" and a "personal dispute" despite the large number workers involved and the dozens of injuries that occurred as a result.

Foxconn, which is the world's largest component maker, has come under scrutiny in the past few years amid reports of employees committing suicide at company facilities. The company has also been accused of employing underage laborers, providing poor living conditions at its dormitory housing, and overworking employees.

Hundreds of workers at the Taiyuan plant reportedly went on strike in March over a pay dispute. The next month, the head of human resources at Foxconn's Taiyuan factory reportedly told South Korea's Maeil Business Newspaper that Foxconn "just got the order" for the iPhone 5.

Watch this: Behind the silk curtain of iPhone manufacturing