Emergencies in Nepal — what to do
Police 100, Ambulance 102, Fire 101, Tourist Police 1144. This hub covers the situations visitors and residents in Nepal actually face — earthquake, landslide, road accident, theft, lost passport, illness, protest shutdowns — and links to a step-by-step guide for each. Read it before you need it, because the common factor in bad outcomes is delay.
Nepal is, for most visitors, a safe and hospitable country. It is also a country with a major earthquake risk, a monsoon that reliably kills people in landslides and floods, mountain roads with a poor safety record, and a health system that is excellent in Kathmandu and thin outside it.
None of that should stop anyone coming. What it should do is make you spend twenty minutes before you travel learning four phone numbers and five decision trees, because in every emergency the thing that separates a bad day from a catastrophe is how fast the right action starts.
This hub gives you the numbers, the general principles and the order of operations. Each specific situation then has its own guide.
Save these numbers before anything else
Put these in your phone now, and also write them on paper in your wallet — the whole point of an emergency is that your phone may be dead, broken or stolen.
- Police — 100
- Ambulance — 102
- Fire — 101
- Traffic Police — 103
- Tourist Police — 1144 (better English, based in tourist areas)
- Your embassy's 24-hour line, and your insurer's 24-hour line — write both down.
The universal order of operations
Almost every emergency in Nepal follows the same sequence, and getting the order right matters more than knowing the details.
- 1. Make the scene safe. Move away from the collapsing thing, the slope, the traffic, the crowd. You cannot help anyone from inside the hazard.
- 2. Deal with life threats. Breathing, bleeding, consciousness. Everything else waits.
- 3. Call for help — 100 / 102 / 1144, plus your guide, hotel or lodge owner, who will get a local response moving faster than you can.
- 4. Tell someone outside the situation where you are. A person at home or at your embassy who knows your location changes what is possible.
- 5. Document. Photograph the scene, the damage, the receipts. Insurance and police both need it.
- 6. Only then deal with logistics — flights, money, replacing things.
Who actually helps you in Nepal
Formal emergency services in Nepal are real but stretched, and response times outside the Kathmandu valley can be long. The practical structure is different from what most visitors expect.
- Tourist Police (1144) — the right first call for foreigners in tourist areas. Better English, used to dealing with visitors, and they can escalate.
- Your hotel manager, guide or lodge owner — genuinely the most effective first responder in most situations. They know who to call locally, speak the language, and have standing in the community.
- Your trekking agency — for anything on a trek, they are the coordination point.
- Your embassy — for passports, arrest, death, and serious repatriation. They cannot pay your bills or get you out of jail, but they can do things nobody else can.
- Your insurer's 24-hour line — for anything that will cost money, especially medical evacuation. Call before authorising, not after.
- Nepal Red Cross and private ambulance services operate in cities; ambulances are not always paramedic-staffed and are often transport rather than treatment.
The five things most likely to go wrong
Ranked roughly by how often they actually affect visitors, not by how dramatic they are:
- Stomach illness — extremely common, occasionally serious, almost entirely preventable with hand hygiene and treated water.
- Road accidents — Nepal's mountain roads and long-distance night buses have a poor safety record. Choose daytime travel and reputable operators.
- Altitude illness — for anyone going above 3,000 m, the single most dangerous predictable risk.
- Theft — usually opportunistic rather than violent: bags, phones, crowded buses and festivals.
- Disruption — bandhs (general strikes), protests, landslide road closures and cancelled flights. Rarely dangerous, frequently expensive if you have no buffer days.
Prepare in twenty minutes
This is the whole preparation checklist, and it takes less time than choosing a restaurant.
- Photograph your passport photo page, visa, insurance policy and flight tickets, and email them to yourself so they exist independently of your phone.
- Write the emergency numbers, your embassy's number and your insurer's number on paper. Keep it separate from the phone.
- Register with your embassy's traveller registration scheme if it has one — it is how they find you after a disaster.
- Check that your insurance names the maximum altitude you will reach and explicitly covers helicopter evacuation and repatriation.
- Tell one person at home your itinerary, and agree what 'no contact' means — on a trek, two days of silence is normal.
- Carry a small emergency cash reserve in a separate place from your wallet. Cards fail, ATMs empty, and cash solves an extraordinary number of Nepali problems.
Every situation guide in this series
Each of these covers one situation properly, with the specific Nepali procedure rather than generic advice.
- Earthquake — what to do during, immediately after, and in the days that follow.
- Landslide, flood and monsoon — the seasonal risk that kills the most people in Nepal.
- Lost or stolen passport — police report, embassy, and the immigration step everyone forgets.
- Robbed or scammed — what to report, to whom, and what is realistically recoverable.
- Medical emergency and hospitals — where to go in Kathmandu, and what happens outside it.
- Road and bus accident — the single most likely serious incident for a visitor.
- Bandh, strike and protest — how Nepal shuts down and how to keep moving.
- Stomach illness and water safety — the most common problem of all.
- Trouble with the police, arrest and drugs — what your embassy can and cannot do.
- Solo and women travellers — the specific precautions that actually matter.
Key takeaways
- ✓Learn four numbers: Police 100, Ambulance 102, Fire 101, Tourist Police 1144 — and write them on paper.
- ✓Order of operations: make it safe, treat life threats, call for help, tell someone outside, document, then logistics.
- ✓Your hotel manager, guide or lodge owner is usually the most effective first responder in Nepal.
- ✓Call your insurer before authorising anything expensive, especially a helicopter.
- ✓Twenty minutes of preparation — photographed documents, written numbers, embassy registration, a cash reserve — covers most of the risk.
Emergencies in Nepal — FAQ
What is the emergency number in Nepal?+
Police 100, Ambulance 102, Fire 101 and Traffic Police 103. Foreign visitors should also save the Tourist Police hotline, 1144, whose officers are based in tourist areas and generally have better English.
Is Nepal safe for tourists?+
Generally yes — violent crime against visitors is uncommon and Nepali hospitality is real. The genuine risks are road accidents, altitude illness, monsoon landslides and floods, earthquakes, and opportunistic theft. All are manageable with preparation rather than avoidance.
Who should I call first in an emergency in Nepal?+
For an immediate life threat, 100 or 102. In practice, also tell your hotel manager, guide or lodge owner straight away — they will get a local response moving faster than a visitor can, because they know who to call and speak the language.
Can my embassy help me in Nepal?+
For some things only. Embassies issue emergency travel documents, contact your family, visit you if you are arrested, and assist with repatriation after a death. They cannot pay medical or legal bills, get you out of jail, or intervene in Nepali legal proceedings.
What should I do to prepare for emergencies before travelling to Nepal?+
Photograph your passport, visa and insurance and email them to yourself; write emergency, embassy and insurer numbers on paper; register with your embassy's traveller scheme; check your insurance names your maximum altitude and covers helicopter evacuation; and carry a separate cash reserve.
Every guide in this series
Related guides
Sources & data note
Emergency numbers, department names and official procedures in this guide are cited to Nepali government bodies, embassies and health authorities. The sequencing advice — what to do first, what typically happens at a Nepali police station or hospital counter, how long things take in practice — is our own synthesis of official guidance and consistent traveller and resident reporting, because no single authority publishes an end-to-end procedure. Verify anything visa-, money- or life-critical with the relevant authority or your embassy. Nothing here is medical or legal advice. Guides are written from primary sources — Nepali government departments, operators, park authorities and standards bodies — and each guide lists the sources used for its own facts. Rules, fees and prices in Nepal change; treat figures as current at the review date shown on each guide and verify anything money- or visa-critical with the issuing authority before you rely on it.
- Nepal Police — official site and emergency contactsNepal Police ↗
- Emergency assistance and local information for NepalU.S. Embassy in Nepal ↗
- Nepal Tourism Board — official site (destinations and traveller information)Nepal Tourism Board ↗
- National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management AuthorityNDRRMA, Government of Nepal ↗
- Department of Immigration Nepal — visas, extensions and proceduresDepartment of Immigration, Nepal ↗
- Nepal Red Cross Society — emergency and ambulance servicesNepal Red Cross Society ↗