A supplier to Samsung Electronics said on Monday that its battery does not appear to have caused a Galaxy Note 7 smartphone to ignite in China, after Chinese media reported one of the handsets caught fire. The incident comes amid a recall of the Note 7 phones across the globe including South Korea and the United States due to faulty batteries causing the devices to catch fire while charging or in normal use. Samsung has said it has sold 2.5 million phones equipped with the suspect batteries.

Late on Sunday, Chinese online financial magazine Caixin cited an internet user's report that their Note 7 phone, bought from JD.com Inc, had caught fire in what appeared to be the first report in China of a fire involving the handset.

Amperex Technology Limited (ATL) said it conducted a joint investigation with Samsung on the phone in question and determined the incident was not directly linked to a battery made by the China-based firm.

"According to the burn marks on the sample, we surmise that the source of the heating comes from outside the battery, and it's very likely that there was an external factor causing the heating problem," the battery maker said in a statement.