The Wuhan Institute of Virology in central China has been accused by top US officials of being the source of the coronavirus, but no evidence has been released to back the claims (Photo by=AFP/Hector RETAMAL)

[아시아뉴스통신=레악카나 기자] Chinese state media has offered a rare glimpse of the lab at the heart of coronavirus conspiracy theories, as it seeks to push back against claims the facility was the source of the global pandemic.

Footage broadcast by state-run CCTV is believed to be the first from within the institute's P4 lab - for highly-dangerous Class 4 pathogens - since its inauguration in 2017.It offered no new information on the lab's workings, only a few brief shots of actual laboratory areas through thick glass windows. The report said safety protocols prevented closer access.

"There have been no accidents of pathogen leaks or human infections" from the lab, said Yuan Zhiming, director of the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory. Chinese officials said early that the virus may have spread from a live animal market in the city but no further confirmation were revealed.

Conspiracy rumours that the biosafety lab was involved in the outbreak swirled online for months before Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo brought the theory into the mainstream. The United States and Australia called for an investigation into the origins of the pandemic. WHO is sending an animal health expert and an epidemiologist to China this weekend to lay the groundwork for an investigation into the animal origins of the new coronavirus.