In initial trade, London's benchmark FTSE 100 index was down 0.5 percent at 6,968.79 points.

In the eurozone, Frankfurt's DAX 30 was down almost 0.8 percent at 11,157.65 points and the Paris CAC 40 lost 0.5 percent to 4,962.85.

The downbeat opening followed heavy losses in Asia on fresh concerns about demand for Apple's iPhones, while Japanese car giants Nissan and Mitsubishi plunged on news chairman Carlos Ghosn had been arrested over alleged financial misconduct.

Wall Street stocks had finished sharply lower Monday, with the Nasdaq crumbling on worries about flagging growth among tech giants and US-China trade tensions.

"Worries over iPhone demand were the Nasdaq catalyst but losses spread through the rest of the tech sector, semiconductor shares seeing red after China alleged competition violations among chipmakers," noted Accendo Markets analyst Michael van Dulken.

After a brief couple of days of stability, jitters have  returned to trading floors following a report that the US titan Apple had slashed production of its most popular handsets.

Apple tumbled on a Wall Street Journal report on production cuts for its new iPhone models, while Facebook plummeted amid negative fallout over its handling of consumer data and various other controversies that have generated scrutiny.

Apple lost four percent in US trade with Facebook, Amazon, Google parent Alphabet and Microsoft each diving three percent or more.