Sarco suicide pod is used for the first time as US woman, 64, uses the capsule to die in Swiss woodland - prompting police to swoop and detain staff

The Sarco suicide pod has been used for the first time, its creators have confirmed, with an American woman aged 64 believed to be the first person to have died in the device.

Police in northern Switzerland said that several people were detained on Monday, and that prosecutors had opened an investigation on suspicion of incitement and accessory to suicide.

The 'Sarco' suicide capsule is designed to allow a person inside to push a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber. The person is then supposed to fall asleep and die by suffocation in a few minutes.

Prosecutors in Schaffhausen canton were informed by a law firm that an assisted suicide involving use of the Sarco capsule had taken place Monday near a forest cabin in Merishausen, police said in a statement.

The woman who died in the capsule had reportedly been suffering with 'a very serious illness that involves severe pain' and had wished to die for 'at least two years'.

The Last Resort, the Swiss firm behind the Sarco, said in a statement: 'On Monday 23 September, at approximately 16.01 CEST, a 64-year old woman from the the mid-west in the USA died using the Sarco device.'

It said the co-president of the organisation, Florian Willet, was the sole person present for the death, contrary to police reports.

Dutch newspaper Volkskrant reported that police had detained one of its photographers who wanted to take pictures of the use of the Sarco. 

It said Schaffhausen police had indicated the photographer was being held at a police station but declined to give a further explanation. 

According to Last Resort, Willet said the woman's death had been 'peaceful, fast and dignified', taking place 'under a canopy of trees, at a private forest retreat in the Canton of Schaffhausen close to the Swiss-German border.'

The organisation said the woman 'had been suffering for many years from a number of serious problems associated with severe immune compromise.'

The inventor of the Sarco, Philip Nitschke, said his device 'had performed exactly as it had been designed to do,' saying it had provided a 'non-drug, peaceful death at the time of the person's choosing'.

The Last Resort Advisory Board member and lawyer, Fiona Stewart said that The Last Resort was acting at all times on the advice of their lawyers.

The device was used on the same day as Swiss Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider told the National Council that she considers the use of the Sarco in Switzerland to be illegal. 

'The Sarco suicide capsule is not legal in two respects,' Baume-Schneider reportedly said.

'On one hand, it does not fulfill the demands of the product safety law, and as such, must not be brought into circulation,' she said. 

'On the other hand, the corresponding use of nitrogen is not compatible with the article on purpose in the chemicals law.' 

Swiss law allows assisted suicide so long as the person takes his or her life with no 'external assistance' and those who help the person die do not do so for 'any self-serving motive,' according to a government website.

Switzerland is among the only countries in the world where foreigners can travel to legally end their lives, and is home to a number of organizations that are dedicated to helping people kill themselves.

Some lawmakers in Switzerland have argued that the law is unclear and have sought to close what they call legal loopholes.

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