Zurich:

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 northern canton of Schaffhausen bordering Germany said the so-called “Sarco” capsule had been deployed in a wood in the municipality of Merishausen on Monday.

Prosecutors in Schaffhausen have opened criminal proceedings against several people for “inducing and aiding and abetting suicide”, a police statement said, adding several people were detained, without giving details about them or the deceased.

A spokesperson for the group behind the capsule, The Last Resort, said the deceased was a 64-year-old American woman who had been suffering from a severely compromised immune system.

Florian Willet, co-president of The Last Resort, was among the four detainees, along with a Dutch journalist and two Swiss people, the spokesperson said. Willet was the only other person present when the woman ended her life, the spokesperson said.

In a statement issued by The Last Resort, Willet had described the death as “peaceful, fast and dignified.”

The Last Resort spokesperson said the woman had passed psychiatric evaluations prior to ending her life.

A spokesperson for prosecutors in Schaffhausen declined to give details or confirm there were four detainees.

Cast along sleek, aerodynamic lines, the “Sarco” causes death when its occupant releases nitrogen gas inside, lowering the amount of oxygen to lethal levels. It is the brainchild of Philip Nitschke, an Australian physician famous for his work on assisted suicide since the 1990s.

Switzerland has been a magnet for advocates of assisted suicide due to laws that make it legal there, and The Last Resort says its legal advice was that it could be deployed.

The capsule has generated considerable media attention and discussion among authorities on whether they would allow it.

Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, the Swiss minister responsible for health, said on Monday that the capsule does not meet the requirements of product safety law, and that its use of nitrogen is not legally compliant.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

The body of a British kayaker who disappeared in Switzerland has been found, the Guardian reported. It comes two weeks after Bren Orton was reported missing on the Melezza River in the Ticino region of Switzerland. The 29-year-old, based in Warrington, was reportedly dragged into the water by recirculating waves and did not resurface.

A post from his sponsor, Pyranha Kayak, read, ”It is with immense sadness that we announce that our friend and ambassador Bren Orton is no longer with us. It has been reported that Bren’s body was recovered yesterday in Lago Maggiore, Italy, following a tragic accident on the nearby river Melezza on May 16.”

A spokesperson for the Swiss police explained where Mr Orton had gone missing and how he was found. A police spokesperson said on Thursday: ”Shortly before 1 pm in Locarno, the lifeless body of the man who disappeared on 16 May while kayaking in the Melezza was found in the waters of Lake Maggiore. The alarm was triggered by a sailor who found the body in the water and immediately notified the emergency services.”

Mr Orton was a social media influencer who set a world record in 2018 after plunging 128 feet down Big Banana Falls in Mexico. He started kayaking when he was nine years old after discovering his love for the sport during a school trip. He regularly documented his kayaking journeys and travels on Instagram, where he amassed over 58,000 followers. His Insta bio read, ”Trying never to grow up and kayak forever.”

In a 2020 interview, he described kayaking as a ”sport that challenges you on so many levels, provides access to some of the nicest people on the planet and takes a kid from Warrington to Africa in pursuit of the best rapids”.

Following the announcement, hundreds of people have paid tribute to Mr Orton. Former world kayaking champion James Reeves paid tribute to him, writing on Facebook, ”Every few years we seem to lose a friend to our sport. Each loss is tough, and this one cuts deep. Bren Orton was an incredible human. From his teenage years, his warm smile and friendly nature shone as brightly as his kayaking skills … I was privileged to briefly mentor Bren in his early years. Then I watched in awe as he became one of the greatest whitewater kayakers ever.”