EU urges Russia to be 'transparent' on plague reports

The European Union on Wednesday called on Russia to "share timely and transparent reporting" about the death of a plague laboratory technician in Siberia.

"We think that it's necessary to have reliable epidemiological and microbiological findings," European Commission spokeswoman Eva Hrncirova said.

The EU is in contact with experts from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control on the matter, she said, adding "we follow the situation very closely".

Russian news outlet People of Baikal reported Friday that a 28-year-old woman employed at a plague research institute in Siberia's Irkutsk region had died of the disease -- possibly after contracting it from a broken test tube.

Russian authorities have played down the reports, saying the cause of the woman's death was not confirmed and denying they are imposing anti-plague measures.