FIGHTS over food have broken out amid starving employees at a huge iPhone factory in China as the country's latest lockdown takes its toll, it is reported.

Many of the 200,000 workers at Foxconn Technology Group's main factory in Zhengzhou have been forced into isolation after the Communist Party unleashed new draconian coronavirus restrictions.

Some 28 cities – including the virus's ground zero Wuhan – are now under a wave of crippling new measures.

The plant has been forced into a "closed loop system" after just a handful of Covid cases emerged, a source told Bloomberg.

It is understood employees have been barred from leaving the manufacturing campus and undergo regular testing.

Cafeterias at the site – dubbed iPhone City – have been closed and those with Covid or too afraid to leave their dormitories have only been handed basics such as bread and instant noodles, insiders told the outlet.

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They claim scuffles have erupted between employees over food, with only workers on the production lines given meal boxes, it is claimed.

Footage shared on Twitter appears to show fed-up workers standing at windows shouting while people in hazmat suits can be seen on the ground below.

Another clip, reportedly shot at the site, shows people frantically grabbing boxes and rushing to get away with them amid unverified claims no food was allowed to enter the site for three days.

Foxconn, Apple's main manufacturer, described the outbreak as "small" and claimed production between October and December would be unaffected.

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The Taiwanese company said operations were "relatively stable" and that the needs of employees including "material supply and psychological comfort" had been met, reports the New York Times.

This is often a crucial time for the factory – in 2021 about a third of £165billion in iPhone sales happened between the final quarter of the year, according to Apple.

It comes as data released to The Sun Online from economic analysis firm Nomura shows 208million people are currently living under some level of lockdown in China.

It is believed two highly contagious subvariant of Omicron – BF.7 and BA.5.1.7 – are responsible for the recent spike in cases.

China officials have described the variants as "highly contagious" as they can also infect people who had been previously immune.

Beijing is taking a no-tolerance approach to the virus – enforcing the new rules after just 20 to 25 new infections a day this week.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping – who was this week made "Emperor for Life" – is continuing to roll out what has been dubbed as the "world's strictest lockdown".

Cops wearing hazmat suits and wielding machine guns have been brutally enforcing the rules.

Quarantine camps, food shortages. cops seizing people's homes, tags on Covid patients, and drones policing the streets have all been seen across China.

China's draconian response to the virus has raised the spectre of a return to the potential for rising cases around the world as we head into the winter months.

But the West has rolled out much more effective vaccination programs, making countries such as Britain better equipped to deal with any spikes in infections.

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China appears to be pursuing a national policy of self-isolation as the Communist Party have made Covid Zero its flagship plan.

Xi doubled down on the policy in a recent speech – and vowed all measures are due to stay for the foreseeable future.

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