Jeremy Clarkson and his Top Gear crew are no strangers to controversy, but things got out of hand in Argentina last night when they were forced to flee the country under police escort.

What happened is that, Argentines became outraged about the license plates on one of the cars driven by Jeremy Clarkson, a Porsche 928, that read “H928 FKL”, as they interpreted it as a taunting reference to the 1982 Falklands War between the UK and Argentina over a set of remote islands in the South Atlantic Ocean.

Argentina lost that war and the country is, apparently, very sensitive to the matter.

After the media learned about the license plate and made a connection to the Falklands conflict, it didn’t take long for regular Argentines to attack the Top Gear crew that was filming its Christmas special.

An angry mob attacked the team with stones, forcing Clarkson and his co-presenters, Richard Hammond and James May, to abandon their cars, which included a Porsche 928, a Lotus Esprit and a Ford Mustang on the side of the road.

Now, while Argentines claim that Clarkson deliberately chose those license plates, BBC denies the accusations saying it was pure coincidence.

Andy Wilman, executive producer of Top Gear, said on Thursday on BBC: “Top Gear production purchased three cars for a forthcoming programme; to suggest that this car was either chosen for its number plate, or that an alternative number plate was substituted for the original is completely untrue.”

Ironically, Clarkson had previously responded to a report on The Mirror claiming that BBC had told him to behave in Argentina on his Twitter page, with his usual humor (see below).

The team over at Jalopnik also found a video from the attack that prompted the Top Gear crew to leave their cars and run for cover.

Whether it was coincidental or not, that’s not a proper way to handle situations like these, unless you support violent actions like the ones featured in another, recent, but unrelated, incident in Argentina.

Photos via Autoblog Argentina@Twitter

Video

Twitter

According to the Mirror, the BBC told me not to misbehave while I'm in Argentina. 1) they haven't and 2) see pic pic.twitter.com/bd3erxSsTZ

— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) September 23, 2014

Anyway, this is my official response to the Mirror. pic.twitter.com/PF83GPDg9P

— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) September 23, 2014

El video de los piedrazos contra @BBC_TopGear en Tolhuin: https://t.co/lEQAnWzzkB pic.twitter.com/Cgmq2y5vhC

— Autoblog Argentina (@Autoblogcomar) October 3, 2014

. @BBC_TopGear abandonó los autos en Tolhuin después de ser atacados a piedrazos. Nota+fotos: http://t.co/TaVeJGI7U4 pic.twitter.com/zC4ledH3Xp

— Autoblog Argentina (@Autoblogcomar) October 3, 2014