This Sunday marks European Day 112, the European emergency number adopted by the 27 member states of the European Union. This number, available 24/7, allowed citizens to have a short, easy-to-remember telephone contact always available to call for resources in the event of an emergency. In Portugal, the first help number was created in 1965.
In 2023, Portugal’s 112 service received more than six million calls, which were answered in approximately 9 seconds, PSP said. Of these, almost 150 thousand were considered non-incidents.
The PSP explains that you should call 112 when there are people at risk of death or in urgent need of medical attention, crimes are being committed or have just occurred at the time of the call, serious incidents (floods, landslides, forest fires, road accidents). accidents involving casualties or circulatory hazards), as well as the discovery of missing children and elderly people.