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uk Personal safety & immediate danger

What to do if…
you hear someone on a fire escape, balcony, or roof area near your window

Produced and maintained by PanicStation.org Published: Last reviewed: Editorial policy UK guide

Short answer

Stay inside, move away from the window, and treat it as a possible intruder until you can confirm otherwise safely. If you think someone may be trying to get in, or you feel in immediate danger, call 999 or 112.

Do not do these things

  • Don’t open the window, balcony door, curtains, or blinds to check.
  • Don’t go out onto the balcony, roof, or fire escape to investigate.
  • Don’t challenge, argue with, or threaten the person through the window.
  • Don’t stand at the window to film or get a better look.
  • Don’t assume it is probably a neighbour if you cannot clearly confirm that from a safe place.
  • Don’t leave your safer room to collect proof while the person may still be nearby.

What to do now

  1. Move away from the window. Move yourself and anyone with you into an inner room, hallway, or other spot behind a solid wall. Stay away from glass and keep low if you have to pass near it.
  2. Reduce your visibility. Turn off lights in the room nearest the window. Only close blinds or curtains if you can do it without stepping up to the window or putting yourself in view.
  3. Secure what you can from where you are. Lock any nearby doors or windows only if you can reach them without going back towards the danger. Use a chain, secondary lock, or window restrictor only if it is already within easy reach.
  4. Call police if there may be immediate danger. Call 999 or 112 if the person is still close, you hear rattling or trying of a window or door, you think a break-in could be happening, or you feel unsafe.
  5. Use 101 only when it is clearly not an emergency. Use 101 only if the person has clearly gone, nobody appears to be at immediate risk, and you are reporting what happened.
  6. If you cannot safely speak, make a silent 999 call. Call 999, listen to the operator, and try to answer with a whisper, cough, tap, or keypad response if you can. If you are calling from a mobile and you are prompted, press 55 to show it is a genuine emergency and be connected to police; this does not automatically tell police your mobile location. If you are calling from a landline, do not hang up if you can safely stay on the call.
  7. Give the call handler practical details. Say your full address, building name or number, floor, flat number, which side of the building the window is on, what you heard, whether a window or door is being tried, and any description you can give without returning to the window.
  8. Use safe checks only. If you already have a door viewer, intercom camera, peephole, or building app that you can check from your safer place, use that. Do not move closer to the window to look.
  9. Contact building staff after calling police if risk is immediate. If your building has concierge, security, or an emergency maintenance contact, ask them to check communal access points such as the entrance, stairwell, roof hatch, balcony route, or fire escape. Ask them not to overwrite or delete any relevant CCTV.

What can wait

  • You do not need to decide now whether to make a formal statement, speak to neighbours, or complain to the building manager.
  • You do not need to review footage, post online, search outside, or prove what happened while the situation may still be active.
  • Repairs, new locks, restrictors, alarms, and longer-term building access concerns can wait until you are safe and the immediate situation has settled.

Important reassurance

Freezing, shaking, doubting yourself, or worrying that you are overreacting are common in a sudden safety scare. Moving away from the window and asking for help is a reasonable first step when you cannot safely confirm what is happening.

Scope note

These are first steps to stabilise the situation and reduce immediate risk. Later decisions, such as reports, repairs, building access problems, repeated incidents, or insurance issues, may need specialist help from police, your landlord, your managing agent, or another appropriate service.

Important note

This is general information, not legal, medical, financial, therapeutic, or other professional advice. If you feel in immediate danger, call 999 or 112. If you are unsure whether it is an emergency, describe what you are hearing and let the call handler decide the best response.

Additional Resources

Closely connected guides that may be useful during the same situation or its immediate aftermath.

About this guide

This guide was produced and is maintained by PanicStation.org using its published editorial process. Official and specialist sources are checked where relevant, and AI-assisted tools may be used for drafting, organisation, and consistency checks. The site operator remains responsible for publication, revision, and removal decisions.

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