diff --git a/src/get_articles.rs b/src/get_articles.rs
index 57e7526..0ece40a 100644
--- a/src/get_articles.rs
+++ b/src/get_articles.rs
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ use std::{
 use anyhow::{anyhow, bail, Context};
 
 use om_wikiparser::{
-    html,
+    html::{self, HtmlError},
     wm::{parse_osm_tag_file, parse_wikidata_file, parse_wikipedia_file, Page, Title},
 };
 
@@ -269,7 +269,7 @@ fn write(
     redirects: impl IntoIterator<Item = Title>,
     simplify: bool,
 ) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
-    let article_dir = create_article_dir(base, page, redirects)?;
+    let article_dir = create_article_dir(&base, page, redirects)?;
 
     // Write html to determined file.
     let mut filename = article_dir;
@@ -283,7 +283,27 @@ fn write(
     }
 
     let html = if simplify {
-        html::simplify(&page.article_body.html, &page.in_language.identifier)
+        match html::simplify(&page.article_body.html, &page.in_language.identifier) {
+            Ok(html) => html,
+            Err(HtmlError::Panic(msg)) => {
+                // Write original article text to disk
+                let mut error_file = base.as_ref().to_path_buf();
+                error_file.push("errors");
+                if !error_file.exists() {
+                    fs::create_dir(&error_file).context("creating error directory")?;
+                }
+                error_file.push(page.name.replace('/', "%2F"));
+                error_file.set_extension("html");
+
+                fs::write(&error_file, &page.article_body.html).context("writing error file")?;
+
+                if !msg.is_empty() {
+                    bail!("panic occurred while processing html (saved to {error_file:?}): {msg}");
+                } else {
+                    bail!("panic occurred while processing html (saved to {error_file:?})");
+                }
+            }
+        }
     } else {
         page.article_body.html.to_string()
     };
diff --git a/src/html.rs b/src/html.rs
index f8a219f..78fba3d 100644
--- a/src/html.rs
+++ b/src/html.rs
@@ -1,4 +1,11 @@
-use std::collections::{BTreeMap, BTreeSet};
+use std::{
+    any::Any,
+    borrow::Cow,
+    collections::{BTreeMap, BTreeSet},
+    fmt::Display,
+    ops::Deref,
+    panic,
+};
 
 use ego_tree::NodeId;
 use markup5ever::{LocalName, Namespace, QualName};
@@ -78,10 +85,13 @@ static ELEMENT_DENY_LIST: Lazy<Selector> = Lazy::new(|| {
     .unwrap()
 });
 
-pub fn simplify(html: &str, lang: &str) -> String {
-    let mut document = Html::parse_document(html);
-    simplify_html(&mut document, lang);
-    document.html()
+pub fn simplify(html: &str, lang: &str) -> Result<String, HtmlError> {
+    panic::catch_unwind(|| {
+        let mut document = Html::parse_document(html);
+        simplify_html(&mut document, lang);
+        Ok(document.html())
+    })
+    .map_err(PanicMsg::new)?
 }
 
 pub fn simplify_html(document: &mut Html, lang: &str) {
@@ -329,6 +339,44 @@ fn expand_id(document: &mut Html, id: NodeId) {
     node.detach();
 }
 
+#[derive(Debug)]
+pub struct PanicMsg(Cow<'static, str>);
+
+impl PanicMsg {
+    pub fn new(payload: Box<dyn Any + Send + 'static>) -> Self {
+        let msg = if let Some(s) = payload.downcast_ref::<&str>() {
+            Some(Cow::Borrowed(*s))
+        } else {
+            payload.downcast::<String>().ok().map(|s| Cow::Owned(*s))
+        };
+
+        Self(msg.unwrap_or_default())
+    }
+}
+
+impl Display for PanicMsg {
+    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut std::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> std::fmt::Result {
+        write!(f, "{}", self.0)
+    }
+}
+
+impl std::error::Error for PanicMsg {}
+
+impl Deref for PanicMsg {
+    type Target = str;
+
+    fn deref(&self) -> &Self::Target {
+        &self.0
+    }
+}
+
+#[derive(Debug, thiserror::Error)]
+pub enum HtmlError {
+    /// Processing this HTML caused a panic in an underlying library
+    #[error("panicked while processing html")]
+    Panic(#[from] PanicMsg),
+}
+
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod test {
     use super::*;
diff --git a/src/main.rs b/src/main.rs
index 6a26672..e88ef62 100644
--- a/src/main.rs
+++ b/src/main.rs
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
             stdin().read_to_string(&mut input)?;
 
             let start = Instant::now();
-            let output = om_wikiparser::html::simplify(&input, &lang);
+            let output = om_wikiparser::html::simplify(&input, &lang)?;
             let stop = Instant::now();
             let time = stop.duration_since(start);