The co-pilot suspected of deliberately crashing a Germanwings airliner into the French Alps hid details of an illness, German prosecutors say.

Torn-up sick notes were found in the homes of Andreas Lubitz, they say, including one for the day of the crash, which killed 150 passengers and crew.

A German hospital confirmed he had been a patient recently but denied reports he had been treated for depression.

The EU's aviation regulator has urged airlines to adopt new safety rules.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said in future two crew members should be present in the cockpit at all times.

Data from the voice recorder suggests Mr Lubitz purposely started an eight-minute descent into the mountains after locking the pilot out of the flight deck.

There were no survivors when Flight 4U 9525 crashed in a remote mountain valley on Tuesday while en route from Barcelona in Spain to Duesseldorf in Germany.

Prosecutors say there was no evidence of a political or religious motive for his actions and no suicide note has been found.

French police say the search for passenger remains and debris on the mountain slopes could take another two weeks.

A memorial service is being held at a church in central Duesseldorf, attended by the mayor, Tomas Geisel.


At the scene: Anna Holligan, BBC News, Montabaur
Two officers stand watch at the end of a neat, suburban cul-de-sac. International TV crews focus their cameras on Andreas Lubitz's family home. The blinds are down. A candle has been placed on his parents manicured lawn, with an image of hands clasped in prayer.

Neighbours describe him as a "quiet, affable man". They are struggling to accept that the 27-year-old they once knew could be capable of committing mass murder.

Investigators carrying boxes of evidence and a computer have come and gone. With the discovery of a discarded sick note in his Duesseldorf apartment and confirmation that he attended a medical clinic just days before the crash, the suggestion is that this quiet man was hiding something.

That secret may eventually reveal why he took not just his own life but the lives of 149 others.



Searchers are being ferried to the crash site by helicopter

Investigators face a formidable task in the mountains

Police say little of the plane remains intact

French forensic scientists are examining body parts from the crash site
In a statement (in German), prosecutors said they had seized medical documents from Mr Lubitz's two residences - his Duesseldorf flat and his parents' home north of Frankfurt - which indicated an "existing illness and appropriate medical treatment".

The "fact that, among the documents found, there were sick notes - torn-up, current and for the day of the crash - leads to the provisional assessment that the deceased was hiding his illness from his employer", the report states.

Germanwings confirmed it had not been given a sick note for the day of the crash.

Duesseldorf's University Hospital issued a statement (in German) saying Mr Lubitz had attended the hospital on 10 March and last month.

Adding that it had handed his medical records over to prosecutors, it said reports the co-pilot had been treated there for depression were incorrect.

Germany's Rheinischer Post newspaper, which spoke to the hospital, quoted its own unnamed sources as saying Mr Lubitz had been suffering from a physical, rather than a mental, illness.



BBC News.