Ikea recalls children's beds due to laceration hazard

The world's leading furniture chain Ikea on Thursday issued a recall of two models of children's beds after several reported cases of a broken metal rod that exposed sharp edges. The beds are called Kritter and Sniglar. The recall, announced by Ikea on its national websites, concerned several countries: Belgium, Britain, China, Czech Republic, Ireland, Israel, Luxembourg, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand and Turkey. To avoid children cutting themselves on the sharp edges, customers can either return the bed, exchange it at the store or pick up a free repair kit, Ikea said. A spokeswoman for the group in Sweden, Anna Pilkrona Godden, estimated to AFP that about 10,000 beds of the two models had been sold in the Scandinavian country, but she was unable to specify how many beds had been sold abroad. The Consumer Product Safety Commission in the United States said some 22,000 beds were affected in the US and 18,000 in Canada. The commission said in a statement that there had been one report in each country of the metal rod on the beds breaking but no injuries had been reported.