Emergency Calls abroad

[d1sprin]

ok so here is my question, how do you call the emergency services in a foreign country? i ask because recently, during a call i was in on skype the other person fainted, hitting their head, luckily i knew a friends mobile and they called 999(uk) so everything worked out, but how do we do it if we dont know others phone numbers? how do we do it directly?

[wd9ewk]

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d1sprin wrote:

ok so here is my question, how do you call the emergency services in a foreign country? i ask because recently, during a call i was in on skype the other person fainted, hitting their head, luckily i knew a friends mobile and they called 999(uk) so everything worked out, but how do we do it if we dont know others phone numbers? how do we do it directly?

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It's simple.  You don't use Skype to call emergency services numbers like 999 in the UK, 911 in the USA and Canada, 000 in Australia, etc.  Skype is an international calling service, and stresses that with notices on many parts of this web site and in its documentation:

No emergency calls with Skype

Skype is not a replacement for your telephone and can't be used for emergency calling.

You should have access to a landline or mobile phone for calling an emergency number.  Otherwise, you would have to locate a local number that will ring the emergency services in a particular area. 

Travelers should take time to get familiar with how to contact the emergency services wherever they go.  For GSM mobile phones, 112 can be a way to reach the emergency services without having to know country-specific numbers like 999/911/000, but that may not work everywhere.  In the situation you reference, I don't know what the best answer would be, other than Skype won't work to reach these numbers.

Sorry!

[d1sprin]

right, that wasnt my question, but maybe i wasn't clear enough, the skype call wasn't an emergency call just a normal one, i know skype doesn't do emergency calls, but i wanted, using a landline, to call the emergency services in the country my friend was in neither of us was a traveller she was unconscious so i needed to to call, i managed to call a friend that helped but i still do not know how to call the emergency services in another country, WITH A LANDLINE, in case something like this ever happens again

[wd9ewk]

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d1sprin wrote:

right, that wasnt my question, but maybe i wasn't clear enough, the skype call wasn't an emergency call just a normal one, i know skype doesn't do emergency calls, but i wanted, using a landline, to call the emergency services in the country my friend was in neither of us was a traveller she was unconscious so i needed to to call, i managed to call a friend that helped but i still do not know how to call the emergency services in another country, WITH A LANDLINE, in case something like this ever happens again

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You would have to search online (Google, Yahoo, etc.) to find those numbers.  If there are alternative numbers to 999/911/000 etc. that are landline numbers, you could call them with Skype. 

Generally speaking, if you are wanting to call 999/911/000/etc. in a country, you are doing that as an emergency call.  Most jurisdictions would have alternative numbers to call if you - for example - need the assistance of the police, but don't need them at your house or place of business immediately - and discourage non-urgent calls to the normal emergency numbers.  In some places, there is a similar short number like those I've listed in my posts (i.e., some cities in the USA now have 311 for calling the police on non-urgent matters), and others have regular landline numbers to dial.  I think expecting Skype to maintain lists of these numbers is unreasonable, given how large a list like that could be just for a single country or state/province in a country.  It would be admirable if Skype did that, but I think that's not a realistic wish.