Dhar (MP) | A 17-year-old student gave birth to a premature baby boy in a school washroom during a Class 10 board examination in Madhya Pradesh's Dhar district, officials said on Friday.

The incident occurred on Tuesday at a private school in Pithampur during a Mathematics paper. It has since triggered a police investigation under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act to probe an alleged case of sexual assault.

Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Parul Belapurkar said the teen complained of a severe stomachache two hours into the examination and sought permission to visit the washroom.

When she did not return to the classroom for a long time, the invigilators checked the washroom and, to their dismay, heard the cries of a baby, an official said.

Female staffers of the school rushed to the scene, and the girl and the infant were brought to a government community health centre in an 108 ambulance, community health physician Dr Prashant Kajave.

Both the teen and the baby were found to be stable, he said.

A preliminary probe revealed that the girl had been 34 weeks (eight months) pregnant, and the infant was premature, he said.

The ASP informed that a case was registered under relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and transferred to the Betma police station.

The teen, in her statement to the Betma police, alleged that she met a boy while participating in a dance programme, and he had sexually assaulted her, which resulted in the pregnancy.

She also alleged that the boy had threatened her into silence and hence, she had not informed her parents about the assault, the official said, adding that a probe is underway.