UK’s 999 emergency service number facing ‘system failure,’ citizens unable to call for fire, police and ambulance
The UK’s emergency service number, 999, is experiencing technical issues, with many calls for fire, police and ambulance not connecting to local operators, British telecommunications company BT has confirmed.
The country-wide outages are seeing Emergency services asked people not to call 999, and instead call 101 or 111, the UK’s non-emergency police and ambulance telephone numbers, as BT works to implement a back-up platform to restore the emergency services number.
The cause for the outage is unknown, with a spokesperson for BT saying in a statement: “Early this morning, we experienced a problem with the 999 service. The situation is fast-moving as we fix the problem. We will provide updates as the issue is resolved.”
Update: BT has confirmed its back-up platform is “now working” and that people should call 999 “as usual”.
Emergency services across the country have confirmed they are able to receive 999 calls again, but some warned they were still experiencing residual difficulties.