London Fire Brigade is advising people to take care in their sexual escapades as penis ring removals have soared in the past year.

Although people getting stuck in everyday household items is on the decrease, firefighters have attended nine penis ring removals which is the same number of the two previous years combined.

Handcuff incidents have also increased, with 15 incidents recorded in 2014/15 but 27 recorded in 2015/16.

LFB believes the rise is because of the film series Fifty Shades, panned by critics, which comes out around Valentine’s Day.

Fewer people are getting stuck, though, as firefighters helped separate people from mostly "everyday items" 459 times in 2015/16 and with only seven weeks left of this financial year the figure is 376.

London Fire Brigade director of operations Dave Brown said: "We’re pleased that fewer people are getting themselves stuck in difficult situations and reducing call outs, however, it seems the Fifty Shades of Grey effect is still leading to some call embarrassing call outs.

"I'd like to remind everyone that 999 is an emergency number and should only be used as such. If there's a genuine emergency, fire crews will of course attend and will be on the scene to help within minutes."

Each incident costs taxpayers at least £326, which means the incidents over the past three years have cost £830,000.

The LFB reported that people getting "into a jam" with rings, bracelets and watches are also common occurrences.

The most common type of call out is to people with rings stuck on their fingers.

Mr Brown said: "Our advice is simple. If the ring doesn't fit, don't force it on.

"As well as being painful, you could end up wasting emergency service time if you have to call us out."

The same advice can be applied to penis rings.