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A "significant" number of tumble dryers sold in the last 11 years in the UK may need a repair owing to fears about fires.

Owners of large air-vented dryers and condensing dryers under the Hotpoint, Indesit and Creda brands may need to have them fixed.

Indesit said that excess fluff could catch the heating element in the machine and cause a fire.

It is recalling many dryers bought between April 2004 and October 2015.

The company said that the tumble dryers could still be used but should not if they were left unattended.

Checks and visits

It is asking owners to check whether their machine is one of those affected and, if so, to contact the company through its dedicated website.

If action is needed, an engineer will visit to mend the machine - a process that the company said could take an hour.

The safety review began following Whirlpool Corporation's purchase of the Indesit business in October 2014.

There are an estimated 30 million Whirlpool, Indesit and Hotpoint machines in UK households, but the company said it would not speculate about exactly how many had been affected.

In June, consumer group Which? said that nearly 12,000 fires in the past three years in Britain had been the fault of defective white goods and kitchen equipment.