Amid the nationwide cellphone outage affecting AT&T's network on Thursday, people have "flooded" 911 centers in Massachusetts with calls, looking to see if those calls will work.
"Please do not do this," state police said on social media, adding that anyone who can place a phone call will be able to call 911 as well.
The agency also urged people who need to call 911 but can't to use a landline, if they have access to one.
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Some people have been reporting that their phones are in "SOS mode" during the outage.
"At my house, my phone was working, and then I stepped outside and all of a sudden got the SOS message," AT&T customer Emma Smart said, calling the issue frustrating.
It forced her to rush to the AT&T Store on Boylston Street in Boston before it even opened — on her birthday — to find out what was going on.
"I just hope it gets sorted out soon enough, cause," she said. "I want to call my mom and stuff."
There have been no requests for help from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, a representative told NBC10 Boston, though it was "aware of and actively monitoring reports of service outages impacting some commercial cellular carriers" and in tough with its partners.
AT&T has said it is "working urgently to restore service." It wasn't immediately clear what caused the outage.
