The rise has been attributed to an increase in smoking after the Second World War

More women have been diagnosed with lung cancer than men in Scotland for the first time.

Statistics from the NHS have shown that there has been a 25% increase in the number of women diagnosed with lung cancers.

The official figures reveal that the numbers of women suffering increased from 2,040 in 1996 to 2,554 in 2016. The amount of men diagnosed during the same period fell from 2,863 to 2,491.

Researchers said overall there was a 3% decrease in the risk of developing cancer in the past decade.

Men still have a higher risk of cancer than women but the gap had closed in the past 10 years.

Charities have said that the rise is down to more women taking up smoking from the 1950s onwards.

Paula Chadwick, chief executive of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, said: "The Second World War saw a change in society and more liberal attitudes towards women.

"Women were out in the workplace and socialising. As a result, it became acceptable for women to start smoking."

Ash Scotland’s Sheila Duffy said: "Tobacco companies have cynically targeted women by pushing a deceptive image of cigarettes as liberating and slimming, while also engineering their products to make them as addictive as possible."