Lubitz was treated for suicidal thoughts years ago - prosecutors

German prosecutors said the treatment happened before he completed his flight training

The co-pilot who killed 149 people when he plunged Germanwings flight 9525 into the French Alps had been treated for suicidal thoughts, it had emerged.

Prosecutors in Dusseldorf, where Andreas Lubitz lived, said that he underwent psychiatric treatment for an “extended period” after having suicidal thoughts.

Ralf Herrenbrück, the public prosecutor, said the episode happened “several years ago” before he qualified as a pilot.

“Until recently, further visits to doctors who gave him sick leave have taken place where no feelings of suicide or aggression towards other people were found,” he added.

Herrenbrück would not give any further details of the current investigation into Mr Lubitz’s possible motives for downing the plane, but said friends from his “personal and professional life” have already been interviewed.

Last week the prosecutor announced that sick notes discovered at his apartment showed that he was undergoing treatment for an unspecified illness and had torn up a letter writing him off ill on the day of the crash.