999 is for emergencies only, warn Dubai Police

Dubai: Motorists made more than 12,000 emergency calls to Dubai Police on Tuesday, most of which were not actual emergencies, said a police official.

Colonel Omar Al Shamsi, Director of the Command and Control Room at Dubai Police's Operations Department, told Gulf News the room received around 12,400 emergency calls most of which were motorists complaining about flooded roads.

"The number 999 is for emergency calls which require urgent police or ambulance intervention. However, motorists are using it to complain about clogged roads and flooded areas which are normal situations in the light of heavy rain and are not emergencies," he said.

Colonel Al Shamsi, who was also attending to non-stop 999 calls, said the authorities were working on draining water from the roads, but motorists kept calling 999 to complain which made the lines even busier and many other motorists complained there was no answer on 999.

He said the calls about weather, flooded roads and alternative routes started coming in from about 12am.

"Dubai Police's control room usually deals with about 7,000 to 8,000 calls per day," Colonel Al Shamsi said.

He said there were 30 personnel working on answering 999 calls round-the-clock.