The number of young women showing early signs of cervical cancer has nearly halved since the introduction of a school vaccination programme in Scotland, new research suggests.

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women under the age of 35 and strains of human papillomavirus (HPV) cause around 90% of those cancers.

A school immunisation drive began in 2008 for 12 and 13-year-old girls and uptake of the vaccine is among the highest in the world.

Around nine in ten girls chose to receive the jab and a catch-up programme was also introduced.

Researchers at Aberdeen University analysed the number of women involved in the catch-up programme who were referred for a colposcopy - a procedure used to look at the cervix if screening finds abnormal cells.

They found 1294 women aged 20 and 21 were referred for a colposcopy in 2008/09 following an abnormal smear test, compared with 758 women in 2013/14.

The team has described the 41% drop as "significant" and said they are seeing a reduction much earlier than expected.

Professor Maggie Cruickshank said: "We thought it might take 20 years to see the benefits of HPV vaccination as it would take time to reduce levels of HPV infection - the virus that causes abnormal cells to develop.

"But this data shows that we're already seeing a significant reduction in colposcopy and subsequent treatment for pre-cancer.

"This is great news for women as this means they can avoid the short-term negative effects of colposcopy, such as pain and bleeding, but also longer term there are concerns that some women treated for pre-cancer changes can have an increased risk of pre-term labour."