After a Covid outbreak caused staff to lock down at the workplace, workers have escaped Apple's largest iPhone production plant in China.
About ten people were seen in a video posted online climbing a barrier outside the Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, which is located in the heart of China.
The strict zero-Covid policy of Chinese President Xi Jinping is still causing problems for the country's citizens and enterprises.
How many Covid instances have been found at the factory is unknown.
According to the Reuters news agency, Zhengzhou, the capital of China's Henan province, recorded 167 locally transmitted diseases last week, up from 97 the week before.
As a result, the city of over 10 million people was only partially detained, with China continuing to impose stringent lockdown.
With hundreds of thousands of employees at its Zhengzhou site, Foxconn serves as a supplier to US-based Apple but has not released an official estimate of how many of them are affected.
On Sunday, the Taiwan-based corporation asserted that it would not prevent employees from quitting.
However, according to video posted on Chinese social media and shared by Stephen McDonnell, the BBC's China reporter, employees were purportedly captured escaping the property and starting long trips back to their hometowns in an effort to avoid being apprehended on public transportation.
One employee, identified only as Xia, 22, told the Financial Times that the dormitories where he and other employees were housed were "complete mayhem." We leaped a metal fence and a plastic fence to leave the school, he said.
Workers also stated that in an effort to contain the outbreak, the region around the plant had been under lockdown for days and that workers who tested positive for Covid were subjected to daily testing and quarantines.
On October 19, Foxconn declared that all dine-in catering will be prohibited at the Zhengzhou factory and that employees would now be compelled to eat in their rooms.
While the plant scaled up manufacturing of the newest iPhone 14 models, the firm told reporters that "regular production" was being maintained.
According to a statement released by Foxconn on Sunday, "the government decided to restore dine-in meals to increase the convenience and enjoyment of employees' lives."
The statement further stated that "the [factory] is cooperating with the government to organise staff and cars to provide a point-to-point orderly return service for employees beginning today" for those wishing to travel back home.
Foxconn has been contacted by the BBC for comment.
Cities in China are granted the authority to act quickly to contain any virus outbreaks as part of the country's stringent zero-Covid policy. This might range from complete lockdowns to frequent testing and travel limitations.
Several people had hoped that President Xi would rescind the law before the end of the year, but he made it clear at the most recent 20th Communist Party congress that this was not going to happen anytime soon.
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