New Delhi, July 12 -- Pennsylvania's 911 system went down statewide Friday afternoon due to an IT failure, preventing emergency calls from connecting. At 3:18 PM, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) blasted alerts to smartphones warning of "statewide intermittent 911 outages."

Residents were urged to contact local 911 centers via non-emergency lines instead. The outage originated from a technical glitch at a third-party company contracted by PEMA, though officials haven't named the vendor.

By 3:30 PM, counties began publishing alternative numbers online and through social media. PEMA confirmed it's working with tech experts to restore services, but advised, "call 911 only for serious emergencies" if lines work in your ar...