The use of ‘suicide pods’ or ‘suicide capsules’ in Switzerland has been suspended after a criminal investigation was launched over the death of a US woman.

Advocacy groups behind a "suicide capsule" said they have suspended applications to use it until Swiss authorities complete a criminal probe into the death from its first use.

On September 23, an unidentified woman from the United States became the first person to use the suicide capsule, known as the Sarco, in a forest in the northern Schaffhausen region.