Can I call 911 or 112 from a browser?

An emergency call is not an ordinary call. The network routes it to the dispatch centre covering the caller's physical position and hands over a location alongside the audio, which is why an operator can send help to somebody who cannot speak. That routing depends on the network knowing where the phone is, through the mast it is attached to or the address registered to the line.

A browser has no such position. The connection says which network the traffic arrived from, not which street you are standing on, and a service that guessed would send help to the wrong place. So we block emergency numbers outright rather than connecting a call that could fail at the worst possible moment.

Any mobile phone will dial the local emergency number without a SIM card, without credit and usually without an unlock code. This is a requirement of the mobile networks themselves in most countries, so an old handset in a drawer is a working emergency phone.

Learn the local number for wherever you are. 112 works across the European Union and on GSM networks in much of the world, 911 in North America, 999 in the UK, and many countries accept several. A hotel front desk or any landline will also connect you.