Two days after Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia offered to replace its BL-5C battery manufactured by Japan's Matsushita, hundreds of anxious customers were seen thronging its outlets in India, forcing some shops to shut down.

Nokia had found that in some cases, BL-5C batteries were overheating, which was initiated by a short circuit upon charging, and subsequently resulting in their being dislodged.

Some 7,250 batteries in India belong to the BL-5C series, the company said, even as it tried to educate customers on how to identify the make of the battery and then check if they were faulty. “A Nokia branded battery will have Nokia and BL-5C printed on the front of the battery,” the company’s marketing director for India, Devinder Kishore, said in a statement.

On the reverse, ‘Nokia’ mark appears at the top and the battery identification number, comprising 26 characters, is found at the bottom.

“Consumers should refer to this identification number to help determine if the battery is covered under the product advisory and needs to be replaced free of charge,” Kishore said.

The company said the consumers could get their 26-digit identification checked by sending an SMS to 5555, logging on to www.nokia.co.in or calling Nokia Care at 30303838.

On Tuesday, the Finnish mobile phone maker recalled 46 million handset batteries manufactured by Matsushita between December 2005 and November 2006.

The product advisory did not apply to any other Nokia-branded battery, the company said.

“The BL-5C is one of 14 different battery models used in Nokia products. As with many of its components, Nokia has a multi-supplier strategy for batteries, including the BL-5C. Matsushita is one of several suppliers for BL-5C.”  Nokia, the world’s biggest cellphone maker, warned consumers on Tuesday that 46 million of its handsets contained defective batteries made in China that could in rare cases overheat and even dislodge during recharging.

The company, which has 38 per cent of the global market in handsets, warned of potential danger from BL-5C Nokia-branded batteries made by a unit of Matsushita Electrical Industrial of Japan.

According to a statement by Nokia, short circuits generated by the defective batteries have so far led to 100 incidents of overheating, but none have resulted in serious injury or property damage.