A leading Russian microbiologist has claimed the coronavirus is the result of Wuhan scientists doing 'absolutely crazy things' in their laboratory.

World renowned expert Professor Petr Chumakov claimed their aim was to study the pathogenicity of the virus and not 'with malicious intent' to deliberately create a manmade killer.

Professor Chumakov, chief researcher at the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology in Moscow, said: 'In China, scientists at the Wuhan Laboratory have been actively involved in the development of various coronavirus variants for over ten years.

'Moreover, they did this, supposedly not with the aim of creating pathogenic variants, but to study their pathogenicity.

World renowned expert Professor Petr Chumakov (pictured) claimed their aim was to study the pathogenicity of the virus and not 'with malicious intent' to deliberately create a manmade killer

'They did absolutely crazy things, in my opinion.

'For example, inserts in the genome, which gave the virus the ability to infect human cells.

'Now all this has been analysed.

'The picture of the possible creation of the current coronavirus is slowly emerging.'

He told Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper: 'There are several inserts, that is, substitutions of the natural sequence of the genome, which gave it special properties.

'It is interesting that the Chinese and Americans who worked with them published all their works in the open (scientific) press.

Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov (left) warned this week against allegations that coronavirus was manmade

'I even wonder why this background comes to people very slowly.

'I think that an investigation will nevertheless be initiated, as a result of which new rules will be developed that regulate the work with the genomes of such dangerous viruses.

'It's too early to blame anyone.'

He said the Chinese scientists created 'variants of the virus … without malicious intent' possibly aiming for an HIV vaccine.

Professor Chumakov is also connected to Russia's Federal Research Centre for Research and Development of Immunobiological Preparations.

Vladimir Putin's spokesman warned this week against allegations that coronavirus was manmade.

'In the situation where there is not enough information that has been supported and checked by science ... we think it is unacceptable, impossible, to groundlessly accuse anyone,' said Dmitry Peskov.

Veronika Skvortsova (pictured), head of Russia's Federal Medical-Biological Agency (FMBA) has said a 'very thorough' study is needed to determine if the virus is manmade

Earlier Veronika Skvortsova, head of Russia's Federal Medical-Biological Agency (FMBA) and Putin's ex-health minister, was asked if the pandemic virus could be manmade.

'This question is not that easy. It demands a very thorough study,' she said on Russia's Channel One.

'None of the versions can be ruled out.'

She said: 'We can see that a fairly large number of fragments distinguishes this virus from its very close relative, SARS.

'They are approximately 94 per cent similar, the rest is different…

'I think that we must conduct a very serious research.'