Dubai: IKEA, the Swedish home furnishings store, requested its customers in the UAE to stop using and return LEOPARD children’s high chair to any of its stores in the UAE.
Sending caution to its customers, the store said that snap locks that secure the seat to the frame may break, making it possible for the seat to drop through the frame and cause injurious to the user. However, the store said that there are no reported injurious in the Middle East. Customers will receive full refund.
The store further said that IKEA products undergo comprehensive risk assessment during development and are quality and safety tested before being placed on the market. Despite this failures can occur.
The store last December issued an urgent recall of the LEOPARD children's high chair from all its stores across the UK and Northern Ireland after a child had suffered bruised legs from falling through the frame.
Production of new chairs has been suspended until an investigation.
A similar statement was also issued by the store then in which it said faulty components had already resulted in choking hazards and had caused one incident in which a child sat within the chair had fallen through the frame. The firm refused to answer questions about how many chairs were affected.
"Snap locks that secure the seat to the frame can break, making it possible for the seat to drop through the frame," the statement said. "Children can suffer injury to the head and other parts of the body from falls. Detached snap locks pose a choking hazard to children."
The statement said: "IKEA has received eleven reports of broken snap locks, including one incident where the seat with child dropped through the frame. The child suffered bruised legs. In a second incident a detached snap lock was found in a child’s mouth but was removed before choking occurred. No further incidents or injuries have been reported. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause."
The store has started an "urgent investigation" into the cause of the fault. It however maintained that the product is tested in its own laboratory in Sweden against stringent European and US safety regulations.
