CUPERTINO: Apple Inc has found a bug which can cause iPhones to crash when a message containing a specific string of text is received.

The bug, which includes symbols and Arabic characters, was first reported by Apple news blog MacRumors on Tuesday night, adding that it was noticed on social news hub Reddit earlier in the day.

"We are aware of an iMessage issue caused by a specific series of unicode characters and we will make a fix available in a software update," an Apple spokesperson said in an e-mail.

Sending a reply message or having someone send you a message can solve the problem, MacRumors added.