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.

Police in the Schaffhausen region said they arrested "several persons" on suspicion of inciting, and aiding and abetting suicide after someone died reportedly by using a Sarco-made pod on Monday. While assisted dying is legally protected in some circumstances 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,

A 64-year-old US woman this week became the first person to end her life using the controversial ‘suicide pod’ in Switzerland.