-
Plane scrapes through narrow village streets in south of France
The retired water bomber was being taken to be displayed
-
UK family faces £20,000 plus bill after son taken ill on Paris trip
Travel insurer is refusing to pay out for the costs of bringing the teenager home
-
Briton’s parachute fails in 140m French base jump - and he survives
A tree broke his fall and he was lucky enough to drop just as some French fishermen were nearby and could help
Can you call pompiers from UK?
I know the key French emergency telephone numbers, eg. 18 for the pompiers. What if I had to call them from the UK (for an elderly relative living there) – could I do it? G.G.
While in France you can, as you say, call 18 for the pompiers, 15 for the Samu (ambulance), 17 for police and gendarmes, or indeed 112, the universal European emergency number (which will redirect you to a local call handler, usually in France, either based with the pompiers or Samu, depending on which department you are in).
If you need to contact local French emergency services for the area where your relative is, the best bet would be to do a web search and note down the landline numbers for the municipal or national police commissariat, gendarmerie, fire station and Samu.
They usually have ordinary geographical numbers (eg. starting with 02 for the north-west or 05 for the south-west).
