Two 13-year-old girls will soon be charged with defiling a fellow student on school premises after they allegedly undressed her and tried to push a chair leg up her backside, The Sunday Times has learnt.

The incident allegedly happened at the Agius de Soldanis Girls secondary school in Victoria towards the end of November and police sources have confirmed the case was one of defilement.

It was the parents of the 13-year-old victim who reported the matter to the police, claiming their daughter was assaulted by two students in an empty classroom during break time.

The object used in the assault, a chair leg, was retrieved by the police during their investigations.

Sources said the two minors will be charged in court sometime in January.

The Education Ministry confirmed the school was informed of an alleged case of "bullying" on November 27; the same day the police visited the school. A ministry spokesman said the perpetrators were "immediately" suspended from school so that investigations could be carried out and they were being monitored by the school guidance teachers.

The victim and her mother, he added, had accepted counselling offered to them by the Education Department's Child Safety Services.

"The victim's parents are choosing not to send their daughter to school and are considering a possible different educational placement," the spokesman said.

The incident has shocked the otherwise idyllic Gozitan community, however, police sources told this newspaper it was "common practice" in the school for girls to pull down fellow students' panties as "a joke".

"This practice has been going on for at least a year but evidently this time things went way too far," they said.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com