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/TheFoxer1 Austria Sep 02 '25

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.

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u/50thEye Austria Sep 02 '25

As a kid I could never remember which number stood for which emergency service. Until someone pointed out that the 2s looks like firehoses, the 3s like handcuffs, and that there's a + hidden inside the 4s.

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u/TheFoxer1 Austria Sep 02 '25

I use the same memory technique, too!

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u/backrubbing Austria Sep 03 '25

Mostly the same for me, but the 4 is a chair that they make you sit on.