Hewlett Packard is to recall thousands of laptop batteries that may overheat or even catch fire, China's top quality watchdog said Wednesday.

The recall involves 6,726 sets of batteries for HP and Compaq laptops manufactured between 2013 and 2014, including HP ProBook, HP ENVY, Compaq Presario and HP Pavilion, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a statement.

HP will replace the batteries free of charge from Wednesday.