By Pietro Lombardi 
 

Daimler AG (DAI.XE) is recalling more than a million vehicles worldwide due to a fault that may cause airbags to inadvertently deploy, a company spokesman said on Monday.

The company is recalling 400,000 Mercedes-Benz cars in the U.K. and about 200,000 in Germany. The recall will affect vehicles in several other markets as well, the spokesperson said.

He said the issue arises in "rare circumstances" only and that the airbags themselves aren't problematic. The issue isn't related to the Takata Corp. (TKTDY) airbag scandal, they added.

The problem affects some A, B, C and E-class models, as well as some CLA, GLA, GLC, GLK-class vehicles, whose steering components are insufficiently grounded.

"In case of a broken steering column module clock spring this could lead to an inadvertent deployment of the driver airbag in the event of an electrostatic discharge," the company said in a statement. "A broken steering column module clock spring activates a driver airbag warning message in the instrument cluster, as well as the red airbag warning lamp."

Write to Pietro Lombardi at pietro.lombardi@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 16, 2017 13:20 ET (17:20 GMT)