999 is the United Kingdom's official emergency telephone number, and can be used to summon assistance from the three main emergency services, Police, Fire and Rescue and Ambulance, or more specialist services such as HM Coastguard. Calls to the 999 service are free. Calls from the European Union standard emergency number 112 are automatically routed to 999 operators.
Introduced first in the London area in 1937, the UK 999 number is the world's oldest emergency call service. The 9-9-9 format was chosen based on the Button A and Button B design of pre-payment coin operated public payphones in wide use, (first introduced in 1925), which could be easily modified to allow free use of the 9 digit on the rotary dial, without allowing free use of any other number combination.
With the introduction of mobile telephones, accidental or "silent" 999 calls have become an increasing problem. Hoax and improper use of the 999 system are also an issue for the service. For these reasons, there are frequent public information campaigns in the UK on the correct use of the 999 system. A 101 non-emergency number was trialled from 2006, but not introduced.
The number 999 is also used in some Commonwealth countries and former British colonies including Bangladesh, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore (others use a variety of numbers, including 9-1-1). It is also used in Ireland, Poland, the United Arab Emirates, Macao, Bahrain and Qatar.
999 is used to contact the emergency services upon witnessing or being involved in an emergency. In the United Kingdom, the numbers 999 and 112 both correspond to the same line, and there is no priority or charge for either of them.
An emergency can be:
* A person in immediate danger of injury or their life is at risk
* Suspicion that a crime is in progress
* Another serious incident which needs immediate emergency service attendance
On dialling 999 an operator will come onto the line and ask "Emergency. Which service?". Previously operators asked "Which service do you require?" (approximately up to the mid-90s). If the caller is unsure as to which service they require, the operator will advise according to the situation, and if an incident requires more than one service, for instance a Road Traffic Collision with injuries and trapped persons, depending on the service the caller has chosen, the service will alert the other services for the caller. The caller will be connected to the service which covers the area that they are (or appear to be) calling from.
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