Thailand has five main emergency numbers: 191 for urgent incidents and crime, 1669 for medical emergencies, 199 for fires, 1193 for the highway police and 1155 for the tourist police. Saving them in your phone before anything happens means you can call the right line at once, without searching in a stressful moment.
Beyond these, there are specialist lines for travel problems such as a lost vehicle, traffic information, accidents on the water and expressways. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration's medical department also has its own number. Details are below.
The five main emergency numbers
The five numbers below are confirmed by the emergency number lists of two media outlets that agree with each other: PPTV HD 36 and Thansettakij. The website of the National Institute for Emergency Medicine (NIEM) confirms only one of them, 1669, as the medical emergency line.
- 191: urgent incidents and crime
- 1669: medical emergencies, the NIEM line
- 199: fires, answered by the Rama Radio Center
- 1193: highway police
- 1155: tourist police
Each line has a separate job. Call 191 to report an urgent incident or a crime. Call 1669, the NIEM hotline, for a person who is seriously ill or injured. Call 199 to report a fire, which is handled through the Rama Radio Center. The highway police take calls on 1193, and the tourist police take calls on 1155.
When you save the numbers, give each contact a name that says what it is for, such as 'Emergency 1669' or 'Fire 199'. That makes them quicker to find and helps you avoid mixing them up.
Numbers for vehicles, roads and travel
The lists from both media outlets agree on several travel-related lines:
- 1192: report a lost or stolen vehicle
- 1197: traffic information
- 1196: report an accident on the water
- 1146: Department of Rural Roads
- 1586: Department of Highways hotline
- 1543: expressway line, which Thansettakij says is for expressway accidents
You do not need to memorize all of these. If you often travel long distances, note only the lines for the routes you use, such as the highway line, the expressway line or the traffic information line, and keep them next to the main emergency numbers.
Bangkok medical numbers
In Bangkok, both outlets also list 1554, the emergency medical unit of Vajira Hospital, and 1646, the number of the Medical Service Department of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. The two outlets describe the purpose of 1646 differently. The only thing that can be confirmed is that it belongs to that department, so do not treat it as an emergency line. The medical emergency number confirmed on the NIEM website is 1669.
Disaster news and how reliable these numbers are
For news about disasters, see the website of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation at disaster.go.th. For police information, see the Royal Thai Police website at royalthaipolice.go.th.
The specialist numbers above come from two media lists, not from announcements by the agencies that run the lines. The PPTV HD 36 page was published in 2024, and the Thansettakij page was published on 11 April 2026. If you actually need one of the specialist lines, check it again on the relevant agency's website first.
This report does not say whether any of these lines offer English-language service. If that matters to you, check with the agency concerned before you rely on it.
Source: National Institute for Emergency Medicine (niems.go.th), Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (disaster.go.th), Royal Thai Police (royalthaipolice.go.th), and the emergency number lists of PPTV HD 36 and Thansettakij (11 April 2026).
This article is adapted from ViewNews' Thai-language report.
