The design and production of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7’s batteries caused the mobile phones to catch fire, the South Korean company said on Monday.

“Our investigation, as well as investigations completed by three independent industry organisations, concluded that the batteries were found to be the cause of the Note 7 incidents.

“Some 700 engineers examined 200,000 devices and 30,000 batteries during the investigation into the cause of the fires,’’ Samsung said in a statement.

Samsung began selling the phone on August 19, but said in October it was discontinuing production following a global recall and multiple reports of some of the devices catching fire.

The discontinuation of production was estimated to cost the South Korean tech giant 3.5 trillion won (three billion dollars) in operating profit from the fourth quarter of 2016 through the first quarter of 2017.

The 940-dollar device was aimed at the premium end of the market, where it was intended to compete with Apple’s iPhone.

Over one million phones were recalled.

Following the recall, the U.S. Department of Transportation strengthened an earlier Federal Aviation Administration warning by ordering airline passengers not to bring Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones on planes unless they keep them turned off and don’t charge them during the flight.

(dpa/NAN)