diff --git a/__tests__/ExpensiMark-HTML-test.js b/__tests__/ExpensiMark-HTML-test.js
index 1a3d81c63..10cb52570 100644
--- a/__tests__/ExpensiMark-HTML-test.js
+++ b/__tests__/ExpensiMark-HTML-test.js
@@ -1786,14 +1786,14 @@ describe('when should keep raw input flag is enabled', () => {
         });
     });
 });
-    
+
 test('Test code fence within inline code', () => {
     let testString = 'Hello world `(```test```)` Hello world';
     expect(parser.replace(testString)).toBe('Hello world &#x60;(<pre>test</pre>)&#x60; Hello world');
-    
+
     testString = 'Hello world `(```test\ntest```)` Hello world';
     expect(parser.replace(testString)).toBe('Hello world &#x60;(<pre>test<br />test</pre>)&#x60; Hello world');
-    
+
     testString = 'Hello world ```(`test`)``` Hello world';
     expect(parser.replace(testString)).toBe('Hello world <pre>(&#x60;test&#x60;)</pre> Hello world');
 
@@ -1900,12 +1900,9 @@ describe('Image markdown conversion to html tag', () => {
         expect(parser.replace(testString)).toBe(resultString);
     });
 
-    // Currently any markdown used inside the square brackets is converted to html string in the alt attribute
-    // The attributes should only contain plain text, but it doesn't seem possible to convert markdown to plain text
-    // or let the parser know not to convert markdown to html for html attributes
-    xtest('Image with alt text containing markdown', () => {
-        const testString = '![*bold* _italic_ ~strike~](https://example.com/image.png)';
-        const resultString = '<img src="https://example.com/image.png" alt="*bold* _italic_ ~strike~" />';
+    test('Image with alt text containing markdown', () => {
+        const testString = '![# fake-heading *bold* _italic_ ~strike~ [:-)]](https://example.com/image.png)';
+        const resultString = '<img src="https://example.com/image.png" alt="&num; fake-heading &ast;bold&ast; &lowbar;italic&lowbar; &#126;strike&#126; &lbrack;:-)&rbrack;" />';
         expect(parser.replace(testString)).toBe(resultString);
     });
 
diff --git a/__tests__/ExpensiMark-Markdown-test.js b/__tests__/ExpensiMark-Markdown-test.js
index 2adce1683..ada9fd900 100644
--- a/__tests__/ExpensiMark-Markdown-test.js
+++ b/__tests__/ExpensiMark-Markdown-test.js
@@ -769,4 +769,10 @@ describe('Image tag conversion to markdown', () => {
         const resultString = '![https://example.com/image.png](https://example.com/image.png)';
         expect(parser.htmlToMarkdown(testString)).toBe(resultString);
    });
+
+    test('Image with alt text containing escaped markdown', () => {
+        const testString = '<img src="https://example.com/image.png" alt="&ast;bold&ast; &lowbar;italic&lowbar; &#126;strike&#126;" />';
+        const resultString = '![*bold* _italic_ ~strike~](https://example.com/image.png)';
+        expect(parser.htmlToMarkdown(testString)).toBe(resultString);
+    });
 });
diff --git a/lib/ExpensiMark.js b/lib/ExpensiMark.js
index 2c15f9bb9..5ec6a7340 100644
--- a/lib/ExpensiMark.js
+++ b/lib/ExpensiMark.js
@@ -120,13 +120,13 @@ export default class ExpensiMark {
              * Converts markdown style images to img tags e.g. ![Expensify](https://www.expensify.com/attachment.png)
              * We need to convert before linking rules since they will not try to create a link from an existing img
              * tag.
+             * Additional sanitization is done to the alt attribute to prevent parsing it further to html by later rules.
              */
             {
                 name: 'image',
                 regex: MARKDOWN_IMAGE_REGEX,
-
-                replacement: (match, g1, g2) => `<img src="${Str.sanitizeURL(g2)}" alt="${g1}" />`,
-                rawInputReplacement: (match, g1, g2) => `<img src="${Str.sanitizeURL(g2)}" alt="${g1}" data-raw-href="${g2}" data-link-variant="labeled" />`
+                replacement: (match, g1, g2) => `<img src="${Str.sanitizeURL(g2)}" alt="${this.escapeMarkdownEntities(g1)}" />`,
+                rawInputReplacement: (match, g1, g2) => `<img src="${Str.sanitizeURL(g2)}" alt="${this.escapeMarkdownEntities(g1)}" data-raw-href="${g2}" data-link-variant="labeled" />`
             },
 
             /**
@@ -954,4 +954,28 @@ export default class ExpensiMark {
         const linksInNew = this.extractLinksInMarkdownComment(newComment);
         return linksInOld === undefined || linksInNew === undefined ? [] : _.difference(linksInOld, linksInNew);
     }
+
+    /**
+     * Replace MD characters with their HTML entity equivalent
+     * @param {String} text
+     * @return {String}
+     */
+    escapeMarkdownEntities(text) {
+        // A regex pattern matching special MD characters we'd like to escape
+        const pattern = /([*_{}[\]#~])/g;
+
+        // A map of MD characters to their HTML entity equivalent
+        const entities = {
+            '*': '&ast;',
+            _: '&lowbar;',
+            '{': '&lbrace;',
+            '}': '&rbrace;',
+            '[': '&lbrack;',
+            ']': '&rbrack;',
+            '#': '&num;',
+            '~': '&#126;',
+        };
+
+        return text.replace(pattern, char => entities[char] || char);
+    }
 }