Can`t get clean values in a <select><option> form...!

Hello, hopefully some of you guys can help me understand this problem. I have a form like this:

<select name="person"> <?php $query = "SELECT * FROM people"; $result = $conexion->query($query); while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) { echo"<option value='".htmlspecialchars($row["person"])."'>". htmlspecialchars($row["person"])."</option>";
} ?>
</select>

As you can see, it takes values from a DB and echoes a number of OPTIONs as a part of a bigger form.

Data in the DB is correct. And yet a keep getting the value of $row["person"] plus some unwanted special characters. When the form is posted, a variable takes the value of the selected option:

$person = htmlspecialchars($_POST["person"]);

However, the final value of the variable is this:

Person<td><p class=

I am very confused! The PERSON column in the DB is correct. the "<td><p class=" segment is not a part of the form. And yet there it is this strange result...

Does anybody sees something I`m missing???

Thanks!!!