What emergency telephone number did your country have before 112 became the standard?
September 2, 2025
In 1997 most of the European union changed its emergency number to 112. Before that, in the Netherlands we used 06-11, for police, firefighters and ambulance.
I was wondering which numbers where in use in your country before the change.
43 comments
0118999881999119725 3
Seriously, in Italy it was 112 for Carabinieri, 113 for police, 115 for firefighters, 118 for the ambulance.
While 112 works in the UK, it has always primarily used 999. I think it was the first emergency number of this kind in the world.
The Soviet standard for phone numbers were: 01- fire, 02 – police, 03 – ambulance, 04 – a fault in the natural gas network. Now there are separate numbers once again. 110 is police and 114 is gas leak. If one dials 112, they ask about the nature of the emergency and redirect.
150 for firefighters, 155 for ambulance, 158 for state police and 159 for metropolitan police. I still remember how they drilled these number to us when I was a kid.
It‘s still 122 for the firefighters, 133 for the police and 144 for the ambulance.
112 just gets you re-routed to one of these, depending on the emergency.
997 – police
998 – fire department
999 – ambulance
imo these were actually a better thing than 112 only, because eg. if you call 998 you will get in contact with a fireman who will have much more knowledge to instruct you than a 112 dispatcher.
We have 150 for firefighters, 155 for ambulance, 158 for state police and 156 for city police. We still use them, alongside the 112. Usually the 112 is for emergencies where you need all of them or you are not sure who to call.
Our old national numbers still work: 150 for firefighters, 155 for ambulance, 158 for state police. The only real difference is, if you call 112, they are more likely to speak English, because that is the “international” number. Or you are in such a pickle that you don’t know what service to call first, and 112 will sort you out.
It’s still 150 for firefighters, 155 for ambulance, 156 for city police and 158 for state police.
Children learn it the way that the 0 in 150 is a pond for firefighters to take water from, 5 in 155 is wheelchair so ambulance, and 8 in 158 are handcuffs.
104 – ambulance
105 – firefighters
107 – police
In the past 112 just rerouted you to one of these, now it is a central command and organizes the appropiate services depending on the nature of the emergency.
It used to be 115 before. I (born in 91) still vaguely remember it being that, there was even some nursery rhyme that mentioned it.
`0-0-0` for everything emergency. Sort of a problem because dialing outside the country was `0-0-xxx`. Many misdials.
In the same era, police always had `xx-xx-1448` for regular calls
And 06-11 was styled as “zero-six-eleven”, which lead to dumb people jokes about not being able to find the 11 on the rotary dial.
001(fire) 002 (Police) and 003 (Medical) Today it’s 110(Fire) 112 (Police) and 113 (Medical) 112 do Forward you to the others if you ask.
999 for all emergencies.
It’s still used, I’d say a lot of people aren’t even aware that 112 does the same thing.
In Slovenia, 92 was for police, 93 for firefighters and 94 for ambulance.
In 1997, police changed to 113, firefighters and ambulance to 112.
The nineties, 100 (medical and fire department) and 101 (police)
The eighties 900 (medical and fire department) and 901 (police)
Im Germany it was already 112 for emergency services and the Fire department.
And 110 for the Police.
Both are still in use today.
We didn’t have a centralised one before 112. Each town had their own. In the town I live in it was 51166 for police, 51100 for ambulance. The next town over had 41200 for police and 11100 for ambulance.
I think 112 is still not fully adopted in Italy, we used to have a series of numbers:
112: Military Police (Carabinieri)
113: Police (Polizia di Stato)
115: Firefighters
117: Guardia di Finanza
118: Ambulance
90000 in Sweden. It was chosen because 9 and 0 were the two outermost digits on rotary phones here. (0 being 1 click, 9 being 10 clicks) so it would be possible to relatively easily find the correct holes in the dark.
Used to be 100 for medical emergencies and 101 for police. Before that, it was 900 for all emergencies.
In west Germany, they always used 110 for police and 112 for ambulances and the fire brigade since it was introduced between 1973 and 1979 (before that, every police station, hospital and fire station had their own separate emergency number). They used a similar system in east Germany, introduced in 1958, although they also used 115 for ambulances between 1976 and 1990.
Police used to be 10022, general emergency number used to be 000 starting in the year 1982 and in 1993 we got the 112 in widespread use in the whole country.
091 for police
062 for giardia civil (gendarmerie)
092 for local police
080 for firemen
061 for ambulances
Yes, getting the 122 was really a good idea…
Switzerland, was and still is:
* 117 Police
* 118 Firefighters
* 144 Ambulance
* 1414 Air rescue
* 145 Tox Help line in case of suspected poisoning
117, 118, 144 might or might not be the same call center. As so often in Switzerland: It depends on the canton.
* 112 will always route you to the police, is synonymous to 117.
We haven’t changed. 999 is the standard emergency number, and has been since it was introduced in 1937. Of course both 911 and 112 also work.
In Greece we have 112, but the old numbers are still valid.
100 for police, 166 for ambulance and 199 for the fire department.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
122 – Police
123 – Firefighters
124 – Ambulance
112 just redirects to the appropriate one
It was 112 as long as I can remember in Portugal. I remember 118 was used for firefighters, and if I’m not mistaken, 115 was also used but I don’t remember what for. I’m 34, so I can’t exactly remember it perfectly.
90000 for all emergencies, as I recall. Never had the opportunity.
That’s ninety thousand, which was the name of the service in common parlance too.
If you’re unsure how many zeros to dial, just keep spinning that dial until someone picks up..
We had 92 for police, 93 for firefighters and 94 for ambulance.
When 112 got working they changed to 192, 193 and 194 for direct lines.
Edit: 195 is for sea accidents, marine patrol.
They still work:
– National Police –> 091
– Guardia Civil –> 062
– Emergency –> 061
– Firefighters: 080
– Traffic Emergency: 011
In Sweden, the emergency number used to be 90 000. One reason it was chosen is that on old rotary phones, the 9 and the 0 were on opposite sides of the dial, which made the number easy to dial even in the dark or without looking at the phone. In addition, the sequence 90 000 had a very low risk of being generated accidentally by pulse-dialing faults, unlike shorter numbers such as 112.
I was born after it was changed so it didn’t even occur to me that it was something else in the past. Thank you this was an interesting thing to learn.
Oh and to answer the question, apparently it was 000 for the common emergency number, and 10022 specifically for the Police. Before 1983 there apparently were numerous regional emergency numbers.
112 still isn’t standard here. It simply forwards to the police and if you need for example the ambulance, this is not efficient. Absolutely terrible system.
122 fire, 133, police, 144 ambulance and everyone has their own control center
100 is the police, 166 is the ambulance and 199 is the firefighters. Also, 108 is the coast guard, but fewer people know that I think. They still work, and they may even be used more than 112.
999 still the main one used in Ireland. I’d never dial 112 unless on the continent.
Many Garda Stations have their own unique phone number and may be called that way also.
Czechia still has these lines:
155: ambulance
158: state police
156: local police
150: firefighter
and it’s faster and better to call them in Czech language. If someone can’t speak Czech they can use 112 for all above and get English speaking operator.
France:
15 – SAMU (ambulance and health issues)
17 – Police
18 – firefighters
115 – Emergency housing (also called social SAMU)
114 – Emergency number for deaf and mute (sms)
117 for police, 118 for firefighters, 144 for ambulance, 145 for the toxicologic infohotline and 1414 for the ambulance helicopter.
Romania
955 – Ambulance
945 – Firefighters
941 – Police
947 – Mountain emergency
961 – Frontier emergency
981 – I think also police?…
The UK still uses 999 for all emergency services (police, fire, ambulance, coastguard, mountain rescue, cave rescue), but 112 will also get you through to the operator for emergencies.
Less known of, but 911 also reaches emergency services.
43 comments
0118999881999119725 3
Seriously, in Italy it was 112 for Carabinieri, 113 for police, 115 for firefighters, 118 for the ambulance.
While 112 works in the UK, it has always primarily used 999. I think it was the first emergency number of this kind in the world.
The Soviet standard for phone numbers were: 01- fire, 02 – police, 03 – ambulance, 04 – a fault in the natural gas network. Now there are separate numbers once again. 110 is police and 114 is gas leak. If one dials 112, they ask about the nature of the emergency and redirect.
150 for firefighters, 155 for ambulance, 158 for state police and 159 for metropolitan police. I still remember how they drilled these number to us when I was a kid.
It‘s still 122 for the firefighters, 133 for the police and 144 for the ambulance.
112 just gets you re-routed to one of these, depending on the emergency.
997 – police
998 – fire department
999 – ambulance
imo these were actually a better thing than 112 only, because eg. if you call 998 you will get in contact with a fireman who will have much more knowledge to instruct you than a 112 dispatcher.
We have 150 for firefighters, 155 for ambulance, 158 for state police and 156 for city police. We still use them, alongside the 112. Usually the 112 is for emergencies where you need all of them or you are not sure who to call.
Our old national numbers still work: 150 for firefighters, 155 for ambulance, 158 for state police. The only real difference is, if you call 112, they are more likely to speak English, because that is the “international” number. Or you are in such a pickle that you don’t know what service to call first, and 112 will sort you out.
It’s still 150 for firefighters, 155 for ambulance, 156 for city police and 158 for state police.
Children learn it the way that the 0 in 150 is a pond for firefighters to take water from, 5 in 155 is wheelchair so ambulance, and 8 in 158 are handcuffs.
104 – ambulance
105 – firefighters
107 – police
In the past 112 just rerouted you to one of these, now it is a central command and organizes the appropiate services depending on the nature of the emergency.
It used to be 115 before. I (born in 91) still vaguely remember it being that, there was even some nursery rhyme that mentioned it.
`0-0-0` for everything emergency. Sort of a problem because dialing outside the country was `0-0-xxx`. Many misdials.
In the same era, police always had `xx-xx-1448` for regular calls
And 06-11 was styled as “zero-six-eleven”, which lead to dumb people jokes about not being able to find the 11 on the rotary dial.
001(fire) 002 (Police) and 003 (Medical) Today it’s 110(Fire) 112 (Police) and 113 (Medical) 112 do Forward you to the others if you ask.
999 for all emergencies.
It’s still used, I’d say a lot of people aren’t even aware that 112 does the same thing.
In Slovenia, 92 was for police, 93 for firefighters and 94 for ambulance.
In 1997, police changed to 113, firefighters and ambulance to 112.
The nineties, 100 (medical and fire department) and 101 (police)
The eighties 900 (medical and fire department) and 901 (police)
Im Germany it was already 112 for emergency services and the Fire department.
And 110 for the Police.
Both are still in use today.
We didn’t have a centralised one before 112. Each town had their own. In the town I live in it was 51166 for police, 51100 for ambulance. The next town over had 41200 for police and 11100 for ambulance.
I think 112 is still not fully adopted in Italy, we used to have a series of numbers:
112: Military Police (Carabinieri)
113: Police (Polizia di Stato)
115: Firefighters
117: Guardia di Finanza
118: Ambulance
90000 in Sweden. It was chosen because 9 and 0 were the two outermost digits on rotary phones here. (0 being 1 click, 9 being 10 clicks) so it would be possible to relatively easily find the correct holes in the dark.
Used to be 100 for medical emergencies and 101 for police. Before that, it was 900 for all emergencies.
In west Germany, they always used 110 for police and 112 for ambulances and the fire brigade since it was introduced between 1973 and 1979 (before that, every police station, hospital and fire station had their own separate emergency number). They used a similar system in east Germany, introduced in 1958, although they also used 115 for ambulances between 1976 and 1990.
Police used to be 10022, general emergency number used to be 000 starting in the year 1982 and in 1993 we got the 112 in widespread use in the whole country.
091 for police
062 for giardia civil (gendarmerie)
092 for local police
080 for firemen
061 for ambulances
Yes, getting the 122 was really a good idea…
Switzerland, was and still is:
* 117 Police
* 118 Firefighters
* 144 Ambulance
* 1414 Air rescue
* 145 Tox Help line in case of suspected poisoning
117, 118, 144 might or might not be the same call center. As so often in Switzerland: It depends on the canton.
* 112 will always route you to the police, is synonymous to 117.
We haven’t changed. 999 is the standard emergency number, and has been since it was introduced in 1937. Of course both 911 and 112 also work.
In Greece we have 112, but the old numbers are still valid.
100 for police, 166 for ambulance and 199 for the fire department.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
122 – Police
123 – Firefighters
124 – Ambulance
112 just redirects to the appropriate one
It was 112 as long as I can remember in Portugal. I remember 118 was used for firefighters, and if I’m not mistaken, 115 was also used but I don’t remember what for. I’m 34, so I can’t exactly remember it perfectly.
90000 for all emergencies, as I recall. Never had the opportunity.
That’s ninety thousand, which was the name of the service in common parlance too.
If you’re unsure how many zeros to dial, just keep spinning that dial until someone picks up..
We had 92 for police, 93 for firefighters and 94 for ambulance.
When 112 got working they changed to 192, 193 and 194 for direct lines.
Edit: 195 is for sea accidents, marine patrol.
They still work:
– National Police –> 091
– Guardia Civil –> 062
– Emergency –> 061
– Firefighters: 080
– Traffic Emergency: 011
In Sweden, the emergency number used to be 90 000. One reason it was chosen is that on old rotary phones, the 9 and the 0 were on opposite sides of the dial, which made the number easy to dial even in the dark or without looking at the phone. In addition, the sequence 90 000 had a very low risk of being generated accidentally by pulse-dialing faults, unlike shorter numbers such as 112.
I was born after it was changed so it didn’t even occur to me that it was something else in the past. Thank you this was an interesting thing to learn.
Oh and to answer the question, apparently it was 000 for the common emergency number, and 10022 specifically for the Police. Before 1983 there apparently were numerous regional emergency numbers.
112 still isn’t standard here. It simply forwards to the police and if you need for example the ambulance, this is not efficient. Absolutely terrible system.
122 fire, 133, police, 144 ambulance and everyone has their own control center
100 is the police, 166 is the ambulance and 199 is the firefighters. Also, 108 is the coast guard, but fewer people know that I think. They still work, and they may even be used more than 112.
999 still the main one used in Ireland. I’d never dial 112 unless on the continent.
Many Garda Stations have their own unique phone number and may be called that way also.
Czechia still has these lines:
155: ambulance
158: state police
156: local police
150: firefighter
and it’s faster and better to call them in Czech language. If someone can’t speak Czech they can use 112 for all above and get English speaking operator.
France:
15 – SAMU (ambulance and health issues)
17 – Police
18 – firefighters
115 – Emergency housing (also called social SAMU)
114 – Emergency number for deaf and mute (sms)
117 for police, 118 for firefighters, 144 for ambulance, 145 for the toxicologic infohotline and 1414 for the ambulance helicopter.
Romania
955 – Ambulance
945 – Firefighters
941 – Police
947 – Mountain emergency
961 – Frontier emergency
981 – I think also police?…
The UK still uses 999 for all emergency services (police, fire, ambulance, coastguard, mountain rescue, cave rescue), but 112 will also get you through to the operator for emergencies.
Less known of, but 911 also reaches emergency services.