A South Korean hospital Tuesday removed a life-support system from a comatose patient in accordance with a court ruling that had approved a euthanasia request for the first time in the country.

AFP quoted a spokesman for Seoul's Severance Hospital as saying that the hospital removed a respirator ― the crucial life-sustaining equipment ― from a 76-year-old woman in mid-morning.

The spokesman said it would take some time for the patient to be pronounced dead, AFP said.

Last month, the Supreme Court, upholding a lower court decision, supported a request by the woman's family that she be allowed to die with dignity.

Under current law, the removal of a respirator from a brain-dead patient is officially regarded as murder. But the family had said extending life using medical devices would prolong the woman's "painful and meaningless" existence.