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The essential Swiss phone numbers you should never forget

Do you know what numbers to call in case of an emergency in Switzerland? Whether you are a new arrival or an established resident, you may not be aware of where to call in urgent situations — until you need to do so.

Published: 16 April 2021 15:00 CEST
Updated: 11 November 2021 12:35 CET

The essential Swiss phone numbers you should never forget

In an emergency, it's crucial to know where to call. Photo by Karolina Grabowska / Pexels

Even if you do know the numbers, when an emergency actually happens you may not be able to recall them. This often happens when people find themselves in stressful situations and are not thinking clearly.

That’s why you should have these numbers saved in your phone and easily accessible..

While we can’t cover all the numbers you may need in all circumstances, these are the most essential ones.

Police: 117
Fire service: 118
Ambulance / medical emergencies: 144
Poison emergencies: 145
Rega helicopter rescue: 1414
Mountain rescue :1415
Distress help hotline: 143
Support for children and teenagers in distress: 147
Traffic emergency and car breakdown service: 140

All of these numbers operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

While they are the same all over Switzerland, the language in which they are answered depends on the linguistic region you are in.

Remember: these numbers are to be used in emergencies only.

Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP

These are the most important and potentially life-saving numbers everyone in Switzerland should know.

Other numbers that you may find useful as well are the ones pertaining to the pandemic:

Coronavirus Infoline: 058-463- 0000, from 6 am to 11 pm daily
COVID-19 vaccination infoline: 058-377- 8892, 6 am to 11 pm

These are nationwide numbers, but it is also good to know where to call locally in case you have questions or need information related specifically to your area.

This link shows you numbers for your canton.

READ MORE: Switzerland tells cantons to use up their vaccine reserves

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Orange bosses summoned to ministry after phone glitch leaves French emergency services uncontactable

Photo: Martin Bureau/AFP

A person in the western Morbihan region suffering from a heart condition was reported dead after failing to put through an emergency call during the outage which lasted for several hours on Wednesday, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said.

While it was not certain that the death was caused directly by long delays in getting through, “what is beyond doubt is that people have told us that they tried calling several times and that they couldn’t get an operator immediately,” he told reporters.

Two people with heart conditions in the overseas territory of La Réunion were also reported dead.

Calling the outage a “serious and unacceptable malfunction”, Darmanin said that Stephane Richard, the CEO of Orange which is France’s biggest telecom company, had been summoned early on Thursday to his ministry “to tell us the current state of play”.

Darmanin reported on Wednesday evening that some emergency call centres “are having difficulty receiving calls due to a technical problem from the operator”.

“Everything is being done to resolve these malfunctions as quickly as possible,” he tweeted.

By Thursday morning the emergency numbers – 17 for police, 15 for ambulance, 18 for firefighters and 112 for all emergencies – were back up and running, although temporary numbers set up overnight were also left in place.

READ ALSO Emergency in France – who to call and what to say

Health Minister Olivier Véran said the breakdown was “obviously due to a maintenance problem” by French telecoms group Orange.

The maintenance carried out “by Orange would have caused fairly random breakdowns, with up to a 30-percent drop in some regions”, Véran told the TF1 channel.

Orange confirmed to AFP that a “technical incident on a router had greatly disrupted VoIP (voice over internet protocol), internet calls in some regions”.

A source close to the case ruled out any kind of “hacking”.

Problems were reported across the country from 6pm, causing havoc for emergency services.

Emergency doctor and head of the Samu-Urgences emergency medical services union François Braun said “people were unable to access the service, calls were not coming through, others were cut off in the middle of a conversation”.

He said that almost all of France’s departments were affected, adding that calls usually peak around 7pm.

“We don’t know what consequences this breakdown will have, it’s too early to say,” he said.

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