Apple said it was suspending sales of the new iPhone at its China stores after fans desperate to get their hands on it fought with security and threw eggs at an official outlet, AFP reported.
Police detained at least two people outside the Beijing shop on Friday when angry crowds who had queued for hours in freezing temperatures for the Chinese launch of the iPhone 4S were left furious after being refused entry.
Frustrated shoppers attacked a security guard after police with megaphones shouted at the 1,000-strong crowd to go home and said the gadget would not go on sale.
Apple said customers could still order iPhones online and at other authorized retailers in China. A worker at a small, downtown China Unicom shop said 80 iPhone 4S models had sold out in four hours.
Die-hard fans in China, which has the world's largest online population with more than 500 million users, have been known to line up for days to get their hands on the latest Apple products.
This is not the first time a near-riot has broken out at a product launch at Apple's Sanlitun district store, China's first when it opened in 2008. In May, four people were taken to hospital and a glass door smashed as crowds rushed to snap up the popular iPad 2 tablet computer.
