The Scottish Government has issued instructions to health boards across the country to quarantine a batch of the cervical cancer vaccine following the death of a teenage girl in England.

An urgent investigation has been launched after Natalie Morton died in hospital on Monday shortly after receiving the HPV1 Cervarix jab at the Blue Coat Church of England School in Coventry.

She apparently suffered a "rare but extreme reaction" after being given the injection, with a number of other girls also suffering dizziness and nausea being sent home.

The batch of Cervarix allocated to the school has been quarantined as a "precautionary measure".  Health chiefs are now trying to establish if the same batch has been in use in Scotland.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Harry Burns said: "This death is tragic. Although no link can be made with the vaccine until all facts are known, I want to reassure girls and parents steps have been taken to put this batch beyond use.

"Scotland's Chief Pharmaceutical Officer has written to all boards today instructing them to quarantine this particular batch.

"Supplies are likely to have been used already and there have been no reports of serious side-effects, but we think it's important to take all sensible safety precautions. Obviously, parents and girls are anxious but I would remind people that this is a vaccine with a very strong safety record. We await investigations by the UK regulatory authorities as a matter of priority."

The vaccination programme is to continue as normal, and at this stage there is no substantiated link between the vaccine and the girl's death.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "It is important to take all sensible safety precautions and that is why the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer has instructed boards to quarantine this batch.

"The HPV vaccine is very safe, it has been rigorously tested and will save lives. For that reason we think it's important to carry on with the programme, but clearly we will continue to take expert clinical advice. While we await the results of the investigations into this tragic death, we are taking the sensible step of taking this batch of vaccine off the shelves."

A spokeswoman for the Coventry coroner's office said it had been informed of Natalie's death and was awaiting the results of post mortem tests. The vaccines has been administered as part of the national immunisation programme to protect women against the disease, which has seen more than 1.4 million doses of the vaccine given out so far.

According to the NHS, Cervarix, the HPV vaccine manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline which was selected for the national immunisation programme, underwent "rigorous safety testing" as part of the licensing process.