The Swiss voice in the world since 1935
Top stories
Stay in touch with Switzerland

Oil flows into Swiss lake during army exercise

Hundreds of litres of oil flow into Lake Zug during military exercise
Hundreds of litres of oil flow into Lake Zug during military exercise Keystone-SDA

Around 100 litres of oil spilled into Lake Zug on Monday afternoon during a Swiss Army exercise.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The law enforcement authorities of canton Zug said the oil was biodegradable. The fire brigade set up an oil barrier.

According to the press release issued on Tuesday, members of the army were pumping water out of Lake Zug using a hydraulic pump during a military exercise. The pump depressurised and oil was detected in the lake. The pump was then switched off.

The fire services of the municipalities of Risch and Zug stopped the spread of the oil with a barrier. It was not clear on Tuesday afternoon why the oil was able to get into the lake. According to the Zug law enforcement authorities, the military police have launched an investigation.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.  

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at english@swissinfo.ch

External Content

Related Stories

Popular Stories

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR