diff --git a/src/qtism/data/storage/xml/Utils.php b/src/qtism/data/storage/xml/Utils.php
index 8930aa811..076c78531 100644
--- a/src/qtism/data/storage/xml/Utils.php
+++ b/src/qtism/data/storage/xml/Utils.php
@@ -450,7 +450,7 @@ public static function removeAllButFirstOccurrence(string $subject, string $toRe
      */
     public static function findExternalNamespaces(string $xml): array
     {
-        $doc = new SimpleXMLElement($xml);
+        $doc = new SimpleXMLElement(htmlspecialchars_decode($xml));
         return array_filter(
             $doc->getDocNamespaces(),
             static function ($key) {