EM Microelectronics is a company that manufactures microprocessors and electronic components in Marin (NE). It belongs to the Swatch Group, which is surprising to many people because Swatch sounds like coloured watches to you. But the group is huge and has subsidiaries that do everything, including industrial electronics.
On Sunday, there was a leak of between 50 and 200 liters of hydrochloric acid at the facility. Enough for the neuchâteloise police to decide to cut off the neighborhood for two hours. And to alert the neighbors, they didn't send agents door to door. They used drones. The drones flew over the neighborhood spreading the message of confinement while firefighters handled the incident.
The Swatch Group confirmed that production was interrupted, although it assures that at no time was there a real danger to workers or the population, thanks to the correct functioning of the alarm systems. According to cantonal police, the incident was contained inside the building and did not affect people or the environment.
More of peur than evil, as they say here. Although drones to warn neighbors not to go out on the street is not exactly what one associates with a quiet Sunday in Neuchâtel.