A woman has been taken to hospital after attempting to recreate a scene from the book and film series Fifty Shades of Grey in her own life, news outlets report.
The woman - who name has not been released - was found by local police in a car park at a nude beach in Tenerife, Spain, with her wrists tied up with cable and her mouth gagged with tape. She was struggling to breathe, and told police she "did not have a partner".
The woman also explained that she was "trying to recreate an S&M scene from 50 Shades of Grey" - a series of erotic novels by EL James that have since been adapted into a film series starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan as the titular characters.
She was initially discovered by a random bystander, who was walking by the woman's Citroën 3 when they heard the repeated blast of a car horn. The woman had been slamming her head repeatedly against the horn, having tied her hands to the steering wheel with cable.
The bystander had initially suspected they were looking at the scene of a kidnapping, and so phoned the police, saying he had heard the horn blaring for around two hours. When the officer arrived and cut her free from her captivity, it turned out that her captivity was, in fact, self inflicted.
"I wanted to recreate a scene from 50 Shades of Grey but it got out of hand. I don’t have a partner and I am alone," the woman reportedly said, via local news outlet La Opinión de Tenerife. She is said to have suffered injuries to her wrists as a result of the attempted sex act.
The series she was reportedly trying to emulate, 50 Shades of Grey, has become perhaps the defining erotic novel series of the 21st Century. Reportedly first written as a fanfiction of the Young Adult novel series Twilight, EL James' first book in the series came out in 2011 to massive fanfare, after its depiction of BDSM relationships.
After making her name with the series of books, writer EL James is currently in the middle of publishing her next novel, entitled The Mister. Revealing a picture of the back cover as well as an excerpt of the new book, James explained to Entertainment Weekly that music plays a huge part in her latest literary work.
"I love music, and while I write I listen to a playlist that evolves with the narrative. The lead characters in The Mister are also music lovers, and it’s been a delight finding pieces and songs that have inspired me and that resonate with Maxim and Alessia and their story. Many of these pieces feature in the book, and I hope they will inspire and resonate with readers too."
The Mister will hit bookshelves on April 16.
