All the pupils at Birchfield Independent School for Girls in Birmingham were tested for the condition after three were found to carry the infectious type of the disease.

A spokesman for Heart of Birmingham Primary Care Trust (PCT) said one girl contracted the disease last summer and was successfully treated. But in February, two more girls developed the infectious form of the disease, prompting the school and health officials to test all the pupils earlier this month.

He said: "Thirty children returned positive skin tests for the disease."

The girls are currently awaiting X-ray screening to determine the extent of the infection and will be treated at Birmingham Chest Clinic and the Birmingham Children's Hospital.

The spokesman added there was no reason for the wider community to be alarmed and all those who have been in close contact with the girls will be screened for the bacterial infection.

None of the girls have attended school since the skin tests returned positive results.

No one from the school, a Muslim independent school with about 200 pupils, was available for comment.