Overview

• A telephone provider malfunction left the 110 emergency line unreachable in 34 of 47 NRW police districts on the morning of July 16.
• Citizens were guided to use the 112 fire emergency line, the alternative 8700 hotline or the nora app and local stations for urgent police assistance.
• NRW interior ministry and provider technicians restored full service by late morning without any confirmed loss of emergency calls.
• FDP legislators criticized the incident as a “Notruf-Debakel” and demanded the establishment of fail-safe backup systems.
• The outage follows similar breakdowns in October 2024 and underscores ongoing challenges in modernizing and securing Germany’s emergency call network.