diff --git a/Parsedown.php b/Parsedown.php
index ae0cbde..d9d5c3a 100644
--- a/Parsedown.php
+++ b/Parsedown.php
@@ -1918,7 +1918,7 @@ class Parsedown
 
     protected static function escape($text, $allowQuotes = false)
     {
-        return htmlspecialchars($text, $allowQuotes ? ENT_NOQUOTES : ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8');
+        return htmlspecialchars($text, $allowQuotes ? ENT_NOQUOTES : ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8', false);
     }
 
     protected static function striAtStart($string, $needle)
diff --git a/test/data/image_reference.html b/test/data/image_reference.html
index 67fbd2c..71ee9be 100644
--- a/test/data/image_reference.html
+++ b/test/data/image_reference.html
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 <p><img src="/md.png" alt="Markdown Logo" /></p>
-<p>![missing reference]</p>
\ No newline at end of file
+<p>![missing reference]</p>
+<p><img src="/md.png" alt="Markdown Logo with html entity as used in french&nbsp;!" /></p>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/data/image_reference.md b/test/data/image_reference.md
index 1e11d94..a427757 100644
--- a/test/data/image_reference.md
+++ b/test/data/image_reference.md
@@ -2,4 +2,6 @@
 
 [image]: /md.png
 
-![missing reference]
\ No newline at end of file
+![missing reference]
+
+![Markdown Logo with html entity as used in french&nbsp;!][image]
\ No newline at end of file