A former head of MI6 says he believes coronavirus started "as an accident" after escaping from a Chinese laboratory. Sir Richard Dearlove revealed he had seen a new scientific report which suggests the deadly virus – which has taken 39,728 lives so far – was man-made.
He claims the bug was not a natural disease and was created by Chinese scientists, this could raise further arguments around the prospect of China paying "repatriations" for deaths caused by the virus worldwide.
Despite the claim, scientists all of the world have failed to decide how the virus emerged. One theory is bats were the original host of the virus and may have infected other animals sold at the Wuhan market.