Nestled in the hilly outskirts of the city at the heart of the coronavirus crisis, a Chinese high-security biosafety laboratory is now the subject of US claims it may be the cradle of the pandemic.

Chinese scientists have said the virus likely jumped from an animal to humans in a market that sold wildlife in Wuhan, but the existence of the lab has fuelled conspiracy theories that the germ spread from the facility.

The United States has now brought the allegations into the mainstream, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying officials were doing a “full investigation” into how the virus “got out into the world”.

Read more here.

This file photo taken on February 23, 2017, shows workers inside the P4 laboratory in Wuhan, capital of China's Hubei province. The P4 epidemiological laboratory was built in collaboration with French bio-industrial firm Institut Merieux and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The facility is among a handful of labs around the world cleared to handle Class 4 pathogens (P4) — dangerous viruses that pose a high risk of person-to-person transmission. — AFP
This file photo taken on February 23, 2017, shows workers inside the P4 laboratory in Wuhan, capital of China's Hubei province. The P4 epidemiological laboratory was built in collaboration with French bio-industrial firm Institut Merieux and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The facility is among a handful of labs around the world cleared to handle Class 4 pathogens (P4) — dangerous viruses that pose a high risk of person-to-person transmission. — AFP

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