Southampton and Aston Villa players were forced to leave the St Mary's pitch after a drone was flown overhead.
The drone was spotted hovering above the Chapel End, prompting a security call to be made over the stadium's announcement system. "Due to a drone flying above the stadium, the decision has been made to take the players off the pitch," it said.
Referee Michael Salisbury stopped the game and spoke to the captains of both sides before everyone was asked to leave the pitch for safety reasons.
The drone was then flown higher above the stadium but after around 10 minutes the match officials, who were waiting just inside the tunnel, returned to the field of play to access the situation. The players then made their way back out onto the pitch and the game resumed.
Southampton made one change for the game against Aston Villa with Adam Armstrong included in the starting XI in place of Mohamed Elyounoussi. New signings Mislav Orsic and Carlos Alcaraz were among the substitutes.
Meanwhile, Unai Emery made one alteration from the Villa team which beat Leeds last time out. Alex Moreno was handed a first start, with Lucas Digne unavailable through injury.
Southampton have been a much-improved side in recent weeks and boss Nathan Jones has challenged his squad to reach the psychological barrier of hauling themselves out of the relegation zone.
Ahead of the Villa game, he said: "That is the first psychological barrier really, just to get above the line, and that is what we want to do. We would have liked to have done it by now, but it gives us an opportunity this weekend against a very, very tough side, and that is probably our motivation now.
"We all know that it is the first psychological barrier and then you can start to build. At the minute we are playing catch up, but we want to get past that and get our heads above water.
"But we don't get too low when we lose or too high when we win, we have to keep an equilibrium and that is what we have kept. It is a big couple of weeks coming up in terms of three competitions, but we are excited by that. It is a challenge we want to have.
"Yes, the last three results have helped to galvanise everyone, helped to give everyone a little bit of a boost and for everyone to really believe in the work that we are doing inside and out.
"But we haven't rested on our laurels this week, we have had a real hard week."
