Police say lorry driver with stash of weapons and 1,300 rounds of ammunition is responsible for at least 762 shootings

A German lorry driver has admitted responsibility for hundreds of motorway shootings over the past five years, citing road rage as the cause.

The 57-year-old is said by police to be responsible for at least 762 shootings of other vehicles from his lorry. He is said to have had particular disdain for car transporters.

The man was arrested at his home in the Eifel region of south-west Germany early on Sunday morning. Police said he had a stash of weapons and 1,300 rounds of ammunition.

Jörg Ziercke, the president of the federal criminal police office of Germany, said the man had described his attacks as having been prompted by "annoyance and frustration at traffic".

Ziercke called the case "unique in criminal history".

The driver worked for an Eifel delivery company for 12 years. Police described him as "extremely unscrupulous" and at ease with the idea of injuring or even killing his victims. Miraculously only a handful were hurt in the attacks, including one who was hit in the neck, and another who drove their car into a crash barrier after swerving off the road.

Germany has no specific phrase for road rage, so the English phrase, which originated in the US in the late 1980s, is often used to describe the angry or aggressive behaviour of a motorist on the road.

The police spent four years investigating the motorway shootings. Investigators concluded early on that the culprit was most likely a lorry driver because of the height from which the bullets were fired.