Swiss police have arrested several people after a controversial futuristic-looking capsule designed to allow its occupant to commit suicide was used for the first time, authorities said on Tuesday.

The death of an American woman in an assisted suicide capsule has led to criminal proceedings being launched against several people in Switzerland.

Several arrests were allegedly made on Monday after a 64-year-old American woman used a “suicide pod” to kill herself in northern Switzerland. The first-ever use of the Sarco pod took place “under a canopy of trees” near a woodland cabin in Merishausen,