Heavy storms have raged in Switzerland in the past few hours. Particularly affected: Ticino (see video below). To make matters worse, the emergency call failed in many Swiss cantons last night. Appenzell Ausserhoden, Graubünden, St. Gallen, Schaffhausen and Thurgau were also affected. Shortly before nine o’clock the breakdown could be fixed.
While Vorarlberg got off relatively lightly with heavy rains in the past few hours, heavy storms in Switzerland caused massive problems. Particularly affected: Ticino in the south of Switzerland.
To make matters worse, there was also a failure of the Swiss emergency numbers during the night, as blick.ch reports: “First of all, the canton of Zurich reports that the emergency numbers 112 and 117 have failed. How long the disruption will last is unclear. The police say that specialists are working flat out to solve the problem. At the moment, however, no reliable predictions can be made as to how long the interruption will last. “
Emergency call inaccessible in large parts of Switzerland
But the emergency numbers 112 and 117 have also been canceled in the cantons of Aargau, Basel-Stadt, Basel-Land, Lucerne, Schaffhausen and Ticino, as well as the numbers 118 and 144 in individual cantons. Emergency call centers can no longer be reached by telephone. There is no danger, said the cantons concerned via Alert Swiss.
Later that night, reports of the failure in the canton of Bern, in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden, in the canton of Zug, in the canton of Friborg, Uri, Neuchâtel, Vaud, Valais, Nidwalden, St. Gallen, Schwyz and in Graubünden will follow. The Winterthur city police also reported the failure on Friday morning.
According to information from blick.ch, the problem lies with Swisscom. The telecommunications provider confirms this: “Calling over the fixed network is currently impaired. Calls are set up and terminated after a few seconds. Fixed network connections, business numbers and emergency numbers are affected. Telephoning within the mobile network is available as usual.”
Update 8.55 a.m .: As various Swiss authorities have reported, the Swisscom problem has been resolved and the emergency numbers can be reached again as usual.