India, Oct. 5 -- Nearly 200 people have been placed under medical observation after a laboratory worker died from plague in Siberia's Irkutsk region, according to a report by The Moscow Times.

The news outlet also quoted Alexei Tsydenov, head of the neighbouring republic of Buryatia, as confirming that the lab worker, 28-year-old Daria Shipilova, had died from an unspecified form of plague.

Tsydenov added that Daria Shipilova had not visited Buryatia and that her infection was unrelated to the region.

"There are no plague outbreaks in the republic, including in areas bordering Mongolia," he wrote on social media, according to The Moscow Times.

Shipilova reportedly told medical staff that she had accidentally broken a test tube contain...