Toyota Australia has announced the recall of roughly 98,000 RAV4 SUV cars due to potential damage to their seatbelts in the event of a crash.
RAV4 vehicles built between   August 2005 and   November 2012 are affected by the recall, triggered by the discovery of a "potential issue with both outboard seat belts of the second row seats," Toyota Australia said in a statement on Thursday. 
"There is a possibility that, in the event of a high-speed frontal collision, the seat belt webbing could contact a portion of the metal seat cushion frame, become cut and separate," according to the statement.
If this occurs, the seat belt may not restrain the passenger, "which could increase the risk of injury," it read.
The issue affects 2.87 million vehicles, according to an email from the world's biggest-selling automaker.
Toyota Australia said its dealers will add resin protection covers to the metal seat cushion frames, but due to the vast scale of the recall the company anticipates some customers will have to wait until   June for he repairs to be completed.
The owners of the affected RAV4s will be contacted by mail advising them of the details of the recall, and will again be contacted when a dealer is equipped to make the repairs to their SUV, the company said. 
The repairs will be conducted free of charge and will take roughly 60 minutes, Toyota Australia said.
The warning is part of a global recall of almost three million vehicles issued by Toyota Motor Corp on Thursday.
The recall includes 1.3 million vehicles in North America announced earlier in the day by Toyota's US unit, along with around 625,000 vehicles in Europe, 434,000 vehicles in China, 177,000 in Japan and 307,000 in other regions.
The automaker said it would add resin covers to the metal seat cushion frames on all affected vehicles to prevent any metal pieces from cutting the seatbelt in the event of a crash, after it had received two reports in which rear seatbelts separated following crashes.
Toyota Motor Corp said it could not determine whether these incidents were linked to any injuries or fatalities.
But Toyota Australia said there have been no accidents or injuries as a result of the seat belt issue, Toyota Australia said.
For further information customers can contact the Toyota recall campaign helpline on 1800 987 366 or visit Toyota.com.au.
- With Reuters