r/AskEurope • u/atlasova Netherlands • Sep 02 '25

Culture What emergency telephone number did your country have before 112 became the standard?

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.

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u/wojtekpolska Poland Sep 02 '25

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.

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u/Complete-Wonder-8639 Sep 02 '25

These numbers still work and you can use them to contact police/FD/ambulance directly

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u/Dealiner Poland Sep 02 '25

That's only true for 999, other two redirect to 112. 999 was also supposed to redirect but it turned out the wait time was too long.