Story highlights Scotland voted to reject independence by 55% to 45% in 2014

Comments comes as Britain gets ready to trigger Article 50, starting the formal Brexit process

London (CNN) Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has warned she is not "bluffing" over the prospect of holding a second independence referendum in 2018.

The possibility of a Scottish referendum has been on Sturgeon's agenda since the UK voted to leave the European Union in June last year.

But while the UK as a whole voted to leave, nearly two-thirds of Scotland's electorate sought to remain.

Questioned on whether autumn 2018 would be a likely date for a referendum she told the BBC: "Within that window. I guess when the sort of outline of a UK deal becomes clear on the UK exiting the EU, I think would be the common sense time for Scotland to have that choice, if that is the road we choose to go down.

"I'm not ruling anything out."

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