China on Thursday urged caution and political restraint in the wake of reports that Germany's BND intelligence agency gathered plausible evidence that the coronavirus pandemic originated with a laboratory leak in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Germany's BND intelligence agency reportedly gathered plausible evidence that the coronavirus pandemic originated with a laboratory leak in the Chinese city of Wuhan, according to reports by three newspapers on Wednesday.

Former German chancellor Angela Merkel dismissed accusations of a cover-up regarding her handling of intelligence reports on the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, her spokeswoman said on Thursday.

The spy agency's assessment was based on an unspecified intelligence operation code-named "Saaremaa" as well as on publicly-available data.

Germany's foreign intelligence service in 2020 put at 80%-90% the likelihood that the coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic was accidentally released from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology, two German newspapers reported on Wednesday.

CLASSIFIED intelligence on the outbreak of Covid immediately “set off alarm bells”, a former US State Department investigator said. Arms control expert Thomas DiNanno was warned not to

German foreign intelligence reportedly concluded years ago that COVID-19 likely emerged from the Wuhan lab. Now, the cover-up may have finally ended.

Germany's foreign intelligence service believed there was a 80-90% chance that coronavirus accidentally leaked from a Chinese lab, German media say. Two German newspapers say they have uncovered details of an assessment carried out by spy agency BND in 2020 but never published.

Germany's spy agency thinks an accident in a Chinese lab likely led to the COVID-19 pandemic, media say. Evidence it collected allegedly indicates negligence at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.