The criminal investigation in Germany into the pollution-cheating scandal that has engulfed auto giant Volkswagen has identified "a lot fewer than 10" possible culprits, prosecutors told AFP on Friday. 

Klaus Ziehe, spokesman for the prosecutors in the northern German city of Brunswick, said that "more than two, but a lot fewer than 10 people" were suspected of masterminding the scam involving sophisticated software that skews the results of pollution emissions tests in diesel engines.