Customs officials in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, have stepped up efforts to block the smuggling of Apple's new iPhones.

The phones have been on the market in 10 countries and regions since Sept 19 but were excluded from the Chinese mainland.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Shenzhen officials had seized more than 200 iPhone 6 handsets smuggled from Hong Kong. Another 1,600 identified as self-use goods had import duties imposed on them or were returned to Hong Kong, customs data showed.