Apple recalls charger plugs and travel kits as some carry risk of electrical shock

The recall only affects chargers designed for use in Europe, Argentina, Brazil, South Korea and some other countries, with chargers in the UK and US unaffected

A woman looks at the screen of her mobile phone in front of an Apple logo outside its store in downtown Shanghai September 10, 2013

(REUTERS)

Apple is recalling some of its wall plug chargers, after rare cases when the chargers break and can cause electric shock.

The recall only affects those chargers made for use in Europe, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, New Zealand and South Korea. Others made for markets like Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, United Kingdom, United States are unaffected, the company said.

The problems affect two-prong wall adapters that came with some Mac and iOS devices between 2003 and 2015, Apple said, and were also bundled with the Apple World Travel Adapter Kit.

The company is aware of 12 incidents of electric shock through the broken adapters, it said.

Apple asked customers to stop using the affected plug adapters and head to a special page where they can be swapped for new ones.

The problem adapters have either four, five or no characters on the inside slot where they attack to the power adapter, Apple said. The company has a page for identifying the affected products.

Apple recalls are rare, but tend to attract attention because of the profile of the product. The company had to ask customers to return certain iPhone 6 Pluses last year, as well as Pill XL speakers made by Beats, which it now owns.