A telephone outage in parts of Edinburgh and West Lothian has now been resolved.
BT earlier notified Edinburgh police of an issue affecting services throughout the area. Parts of west Edinburgh were among those affected.
Engineers began working to resolve the issue, and police put out extra patrols in affected areas as a result.
They said that in the event of an emergency people were to use a mobile to call 999, and if that didn't work try flagging down an emergency services vehicle not using blue lights or go to the nearest police station, hospital, fire or ambulance station.
Police Scotland also urged relatives and neighbours of elderly or vulnerable people to check in on them as assistance alarms may not have been operating.
They confirmed at around 8.20am that the issue had been resolved and people are now able to contact 999 from their homes and mobiles once again.
They added: "Police Scotland would like to thank the public for their patience and co-operation while this matter was seen to."
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