Call 112
Need urgent help? Call 112.
The "112" number is the European emergency number that anyone in an emergency in one of the 28 Member States of the European Union can call 24/7 to obtain immediate assistance from the fire service, a medical team or from the police. You can phone 112 from a landline or mobile phone. The European emergency number is available everywhere free of charge.
How to call an emergency number?
Before calling 112, try to gather the following information:
- Precise location
- The type of emergency
- Possible casualty count
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Call 112 for the fire service, an ambulance or the police. In Belgium, call 101 for urgent police assistance.
- Wait calmly until you get an answer. Don't hang up, because that will put you back at the end of the queue.
- Give the exact address where the emergency services have to go (town, street, number, intersection, special access, emergency telephone, etc.) and possibly the easiest way to get there. If you are not calling from the place of the incident, tell the operator that.
- Describe what happened (fire, accident, assault, burglary, heart attack, etc.).
- State whether people are in danger or are injured, and how many.
- Do not hang up before the operator tells you to. Keep your phone free afterwards, so that the operator can call back if he/she needs more information.
- If the situation should worsen or improve, then call back to the emergency number to notify this information
In case of a major disaster, the emergency services may receive calls from different people. In that case, the operator will only ask for additional useful information. If you don't have more information, you can hang up when the operator tells you to. In that way, the phone lines to the emergency control centres will be kept free so that other calls can be taken.
If you accidentally call an emergency number, don't hang up but tell the operator that everything is OK. This way the operator will be sure that you are not calling about an emergency.
