The big character up top is the siren, which Unicode names Police car light, U+1F6A8, and Copy puts it on your clipboard. Siren emoji copy paste carries on below with 59 more: alert lines, warning signs, plain text stand-ins, ASCII beacons and combos.
Read the full guide
A light, not a siren
A siren is a noise-making warning device. The emoji is the light that goes with it: a revolving light sends out rotating beams, which appear to flash. CLDR, Unicode's list of search words, files siren, alarm, alert, emergency and beacon under it, and every emoji that shares one of those words is on this page.
Alert lines, bold or plain
Each alert line puts a word between two sirens. The bold capitals are Unicode's mathematical sans-serif letters, U+1D5D4 to U+1D5ED: characters of their own, so they need no formatting to look bold. BREAKING also comes in plain capitals, for a field that refuses styled letters.
Tips
Lighthouse is from Emoji 18.0, the newest version, and shows as an empty box until a phone has it. The siren is from Emoji 0.6.
Warning, No entry and High voltage have a plain text form: switch to Text style. The siren has none.
The three merpeople take skin tones, and the tone row sets all three at once.
Questions and answers
What is the siren emoji called?
Police car light, from Emoji 0.6. The character's formal Unicode name is police cars revolving light, with rotating beacon as a second name. No emoji is named siren: the word is one of its nine CLDR search words.
Is there an alarm emoji?
None is named alarm. CLDR files the word under two emoji: Police car light and Alarm clock. Bell is filed under church and sound instead, though search on this page finds it under alarm too.
Is there a siren symbol in plain text?
No. U+1F6A8 has no text form, and U+0007, which Unicode gives the alias ALERT, is a control code, not a picture. Its picture, Symbol for bell, is in the plain text group, next to Caution sign and a warning triangle typed as /!\.
Why is a mermaid on a siren page?
Because CLDR files siren under four emoji: the light, Merperson, Mermaid and Merman, all three from Emoji 5.0. In Greek mythology sirens were beings with alluring voices, and the word later became a synonym for mermaid.
⏰Alarm clockU+23F0. CLDR files alarm under two emoji: the light and this clock. Emoji 0.6.
🚑AmbulanceU+1F691. One of three emoji CLDR files under emergency, with the light and the safety vest. Emoji 0.6.
🚒Fire engineU+1F692. Sirens are used on ambulances, police cars and fire engines. This is the third. Emoji 0.6.
LighthouseU+1F6D9. A lighthouse is a common example of a beacon, and this is the other emoji CLDR files under that word. Until a phone has Emoji 18.0 it shows as an empty box.
🚔Oncoming police carU+1F694. The same car from the front, with the light bar on the roof facing you. Emoji 0.7.
🚓Police carU+1F693. CLDR files police under six emoji: two cars, three officers and the light. Emoji 0.6.
🚨Police car lightU+1F6A8. Unicode names it police car light, with rotating beacon as a second name. CLDR files it under siren, alarm, alert and emergency. Emoji 0.6.
🦺Safety vestU+1F9BA. The third emoji under emergency. Emoji 12.0.
Show all 60 siren emoji (52 more)
Alert lines, ready to paste 12
‼️🚨‼️Siren between two double exclamation marks
🔴🔵🔴🔵🔴🔵Light bar in red and blue circles
🚨 𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗥𝗧 🚨ALERT in bold capitals, between two sirens
🚨 𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 🚨BREAKING in bold capitals, between two sirens
🚨 𝗟𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗡𝗢𝗪 🚨LIVE NOW in bold capitals
🚨 𝗣𝗦𝗔 🚨PSA in bold capitals
🚨 𝗦𝗣𝗢𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗥 𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗥𝗧 🚨SPOILER ALERT in bold capitals
🚨 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗜𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗔 𝗗𝗥𝗜𝗟𝗟 🚨THIS IS NOT A DRILL in bold capitals
🚨🚨🚨Three sirens in a row
🟥🟥🟥🟦🟦🟦Light bar in red and blue squares
🚨 BREAKING 🚨BREAKING in plain capitals, for where bold letters are refused
🚨 WEE-WOO WEE-WOO 🚨The sound spelled out, in plain capitals
Warning signs 7
‼️Double exclamation markU+203C U+FE0F. CLDR files it under bangbang. It has a plain text form. Emoji 0.6.
⚡High voltageU+26A1. One of two emoji CLDR files under danger. Unicode also calls it the lightning symbol. Emoji 0.6.
⛔No entryU+26D4. In the same Unicode subgroup as Warning, which is named warning. Emoji 0.6.
❗Red exclamation markU+2757. Unicode gives it a second name: obstacles on the road. Emoji 0.6.
🆘SOS buttonU+1F198. SOS was agreed in 1906 as a Morse code distress signal, three dots, three dashes, three dots, and was at first not an abbreviation. Emoji 0.6.
🛑Stop signU+1F6D1. Unicode names the character octagonal sign and gives stop sign as its second name. Emoji 3.0.
⚠️WarningU+26A0 U+FE0F. The only emoji CLDR files under warning or caution. It has a plain text form. Emoji 0.6.
Bells, loudspeakers and lights 6
🔔BellU+1F514. Before sirens, emergency vehicles cleared the road with a bell. CLDR files this one under church and sound, and not under alarm. Emoji 0.6.
🔵Blue circleU+1F535. The other half of a light bar. Emoji 0.6.
📢LoudspeakerU+1F4E2. CLDR files it under loud, public and address. Emoji 0.6.
📣MegaphoneU+1F4E3. CLDR files it under cheering. Emoji 0.6.
🔴Red circleU+1F534. Blue and red are by far the most common colours for the lights of the emergency services. Emoji 0.6.
🔊Speaker high volumeU+1F50A. The other emoji CLDR files under loud. Emoji 0.6.
Plain text stand-ins 8
... --- ...SOS in Morse code: three dots, three dashes, three dots
/!\Warning triangle from three keyboard characters
-=[ ALERT ]=-ALERT banner from keyboard characters
⍾Bell symbolU+237E Bell symbol. Unicode notes that it comes from ISO 2047. It stands for the same control code.
☡Caution signU+2621 Caution sign. Plain text, so it takes the colour of your words. It is not an emoji.
❢Heavy exclamation markU+2762 Heavy exclamation mark ornament. A plain text ornament, not an emoji.
((( o )))Beacon with rings, from keyboard characters
␇Symbol for bellU+2407 Symbol for bell. The picture of U+0007, a control code first sent to ring a small bell on a teleprinter. Unicode gives that code the alias ALERT.
ASCII sirens and warning signs 6
Alert boxThree lines, 26 columns wide, for the top of a plain text note.
Car with a light on the roofSix lines: a side view of a car, with the beacon lit on top.
Flashing sirenEight lines: a dome with the bulb inside, a stepped base and rays on three sides.
Siren in squaresFour rows of five: a red dome with a white glint, on a white base. It pastes as four lines.
Small beaconFive lines, nine columns wide: a lamp on a base with rays above it.
Warning triangle in ASCIISix lines: a triangle with an exclamation mark inside.
Siren combos 9
🚨📰Breaking newsPolice car light, then newspaper. CLDR files Newspaper under news.
🚨☕Coffee emergencyPolice car light, then hot beverage. CLDR files Hot beverage under coffee and morning.
🚨🍿Drama alertPolice car light, then popcorn. CLDR files Popcorn under movie.
🔥🚨🚒Fire alarmFire, then police car light, then fire engine. Fire, the alarm and the engine that answers it.
🚓🚨Pulled overPolice car, then police car light. A police car and its light.
🔴🚨Red alertRed circle, then police car light. A red light, then the siren.
🚨🤐Spoiler alertPolice car light, then zipper-mouth face. CLDR files the face under secret and zip.
🌪️⚠️🚨Storm warningTornado, then warning, then police car light. For a weather post: a tornado, the warning sign and the siren.
⏰🚨Wake-up callAlarm clock, then police car light. The two emoji CLDR files under alarm, side by side. It also files the clock under late.
The other siren, from the sea 4
🧜♀️MermaidU+1F9DC U+200D U+2640 U+FE0F. CLDR files siren under four emoji: the light and these three. In Greek mythology sirens were beings with alluring voices, and the word later became a synonym for mermaid. Emoji 5.0.
🧜♂️MermanU+1F9DC U+200D U+2642 U+FE0F. Under siren too, next to Neptune, Poseidon and Triton. Emoji 5.0.
🧜MerpersonU+1F9DC. Filed under siren as well. Emoji 5.0.
🧜♀️🎶Siren songMermaid, then musical notes. The siren of the myth and the voice she was known for.
How this list was compiled: Built by script on 2026-09-19, not typed by hand. The emoji, their names, code points and Emoji version numbers come from emoji-test.txt, version 18.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/emoji/emoji-test.txt); names are the CLDR short names printed in that file, in sentence case. In that file the siren is police car light, U+1F6A8, Emoji 0.6, in Travel & Places. No emoji is named siren, alarm or alert. The search words are from the CLDR English annotations (https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/blob/main/common/annotations/en.xml and https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/blob/main/common/annotationsDerived/en.xml, main branch). CLDR lists siren for four emoji (police car light and the three merpeople), alert for police car light only, alarm for police car light and alarm clock, emergency for ambulance, police car light and safety vest, and beacon for police car light and lighthouse. All of them are on this page. The text forms come from emoji-variation-sequences.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/emoji/emoji-variation-sequences.txt). U+1F6A8 has no text form there. Every character that is not an emoji was checked against UnicodeData.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt), and a note that names a character uses its name from that file. Notes about what a character is used for come from the annotations in NamesList.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/NamesList.txt). NamesList.txt gives rotating beacon as the second name of U+1F6A8, BELL as the old name of U+0007, and ISO 2047 as the origin of U+237E. Wikipedia supplied the other facts, read as wikitext on 2026-09-20: a siren is a noise-making warning device, used on ambulances, police cars and fire engines, the first emergency vehicles relied on a bell (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siren_(alarm)); revolving lights appear to flash, and blue and red are by far the most common colours (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_vehicle_lighting); the bell character, its value 7, its Unicode alias ALERT and its two pictures (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_character); SOS as a Morse code distress signal agreed in 1906 and at first not an abbreviation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOS); the sirens of Greek mythology, later a synonym for mermaids (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siren_(mythology)); a lighthouse as a common example of a beacon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beacon). The 12 lines, the 6 drawings, the keyboard stand-ins and the combos are this site's own work: the bold words are assembled from character names, the drawings were made for this page and the combo names are our own. All sources were checked on 2026-09-19. Licence: own work