A New Zealand owner of a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 says his phone overheated and then caught fire.

LISTEN ABOVE: Telecommunications Users Association Of New Zealand CEO Craig Young speaks to Andrew Dickens about Samsung's Note 7 disaster 

The incident, involving a Spark customer, is understood to be the first in the country involving a Note 7.

"The phone was brought in-store this afternoon and we immediately arranged for it to be sent to Samsung," Spark home, mobile and business chief executive Jason Paris said on Tuesday night.

"We've been talking with the customer and have confirmation that he is safe, unharmed and that there has been no damage to any physical property."

It is not yet known if the phone was an original Note 7 or a replacement.

Earlier on Tuesday, Samsung announced it was stopping all sales and exchanges of the phone globally while reports of overheating and fires in replacement models are investigated.

In a statement, the South Korean tech giant said anyone with either version of the Note 7 "should power down and stop using the device and take advantage of the remedies available".

Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees have put a halt to swapping out customers' Note 7s for new ones.

Spark has urged customers to back up, turn off and return their Note 7s.

It is offering a full refund, or a swap for an alternative Samsung device with the difference refunded.

Vodafone likewise said it was no longer offering replacements, and customers with either the old or replacement models could refund or exchange them.

2degrees have asked customers to bring the handsets to the store they got them from for an exchange or refund.

Samsung recalled 2.5 million Note 7s just weeks after the phone's launch in September, after dozens of reports of battery fires.

But in the last week, reports of the replacement models overheating have emerged, prompting what the company called a "temporarily adjusting" of production.