BND

Two German newspapers say they have uncovered details of an assessment carried out by spy agency BND in 2020 but never published.

The BND also found indications that several violations of safety regulations had occurred at the lab.

Both the BND and outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz declined to comment.

But the once controversial theory has been gaining ground among some intelligence agencies - and the BND is the latest to entertain the theory.

According to Die Zeit and Sueddeutscher Zeitung, the BND met in Berlin in 2020 to look into the origin of coronavirus in an operation called Project Saaremaa.