Amid calls for a fresh probe into the origins of Covid-19, a new study has alleged that Chinese scientists created the virus in a Wuhan lab. A research paper by British professor Angus Dalgleish and Norwegian scientist Dr Birger Sorensen said that the Chinese scientists tried to hide the evidence by reverse-engineering versions of the virus to make it look like it evolved from bats, UK’s Daily Mail reported.

The research paper said, the Sars-CoV-2 has no “credible natural ancestor” and was created by Chinese scientists who were working on a Gain of Function project in a Wuhan lab.

The research says that scientists took a natural coronavirus “backbone” found in Chinese cave bats and spliced onto it a new “spike”, turning it into the highly transmissible virus that causes Covid-19.

The study has alleged “deliberate destruction, concealment or contamination of data” at Chinese labs and the disappearance of scientists who spoke out.