They should have used
0118 999 881 999 119 725 3
A technical issue with French mobile provider Orange, fixed early this morning, resulted in members of the public being temporarily unable to contact the emergency services. At least one man is believed to have died during the outage, though a link cannot be confirmed, according to France's Minister of the Interior Gérald …
"These are in addition to the standard 112 number, which is used across Europe."
JFTR, in case you may need this (though you probably won't remember then):
In Switzerland you can dial 112, but will have to further specify whom you want to reach. 117 is the direct number for the police, 118 call the firefighters and
144 will reach the ambulance. 1414 mountain rescue (REGA)
iirc, 117 and 118 are alias for 112.