Toyota Recalls 1.4 Million Cars Over Airbags

Toyota is recalling more than 1.4 million cars worldwide over faulty airbags - with some of those also facing fuel tank checks.

The Japanese carmaker said there were almost 73,000 UK vehicles affected by the alerts.

It said 2.9 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles were covered by the fuel defect, which concerned the possibility of a fire caused by cracks in fuel suction plates in hybrid Prius, Auris and Lexus CT200h cars built between April 2006 and last year.

The airbag recall affects 2010-2012 Prius and Lexus CT200h models.

It covers air bag inflators that could have a small crack in a weld, which could lead to the separation of the inflator chambers.

The Japanese carmaker said the airbags on the affected models could partially inflate and the inflator could enter the vehicle interior, increasing the risk of injury.

The airbag recall covers 482,000 US vehicles and models sold in Asia and Europe including more than 34,000 in Britain.

Toyota UK said it was to contact the owners affected by both issues.

The company insisted it was not aware of any injuries or deaths related to either problem.

The airbag incident is not related to a recall of more than 12 million vehicles in the US to replace Takata (Frankfurt: 7TK.F - news) airbag inflators .

This affected eight different carmakers.

Japan's auto industry has been hammered by the Takata crisis and fuel-efficiency scandals involving Mitsubishi Motors and small-car maker Suzuki.