Heartbroken mum of Russian lab worker says she's still waiting for answers after daughter's death

The mother of a Russian lab worker who died and is suspected of being infected with pneumonic plague has accused medics treating her daughter of letting her die.

28-year-old Daria Shipilova died after working as a lab technician at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute in Siberia, which researches deadly diseases.

It has been claimed that she accidentally broke a test tube containing biological material that can cause pneumonic plague, but her mother Svetlana claims that her daughter wasn't cared for enough.

Daria was placed on a ventilator but died, and her mother said: "I saved more than one patient like that, but they didn’t save my daughter. They simply let my daughter die."

She also said she hadn't been told the cause of death for her daughter even days afterwards, saying she is still 'waiting for it to become official' and wants proper confirmation.

Daria Shipilova died earlier this month and her mum says she still doesn't know what happened (East2West News)

Daria has also not been buried as the funeral can't go ahead while her relatives are in quarantine.

"It's very hard for me right now. This whole spectacle drags on," she said as she accused officials of covering up how her daughter died with stories about breaking test tubes.

"I don’t want to read nasty things about my child. I know the truth. I find myself fending off foolish acquaintances who actually believed all that.

"The smart ones, of course, didn’t believe it. Not even all medical professionals realise that it’s impossible to break the test tube - even if you hurl it against a wall.

"Only an amateur would say something like that. Even hypothetically, it’s simply impossible to spill or break it. They are so heavily protected."

Svetlana said her daughter had been 'abandoned' and 'destroyed' after her death.

Officials have said the situation is 'under control', but Svetlana says medics 'let my daughter die' (East2West News)

Daria died in the night between 1 and 2 October, and at around 10pm local time on 2 October three vehicles arrived outside the building where she lived.

Workers in orange protective suits and gas masks treated the entrances to the building with a chemical, with people living there saying that the stench was so bad they could hardly breathe.

When asked why they were spraying chemicals on the building they told locals it was because 'some girl died, a deadly dangerous virus'.

The building has been disinfected twice more since then, and officials told them they were treating the place for cockroaches with residents protesting they didn't have cockroaches in the building.

The official line is that the 28-year-old woman died of 'pneumonia of unknown aetiology', and it has been denied that there was an accident involving dangerous pathogens at the Irkutsk lab.

People living in Shipilova's building say they haven't been quarantined or swabbed, but are called daily to ask if they've developed symptoms.

A perinatal centre in the city has handed pregnant women questionnaires titled 'Checklist in the event of suspected particularly dangerous infection – Plague', though local governor Igor Kobzev insists things are 'completely under control'.