Elk

Elk is a plugin used to generate topographies and street maps using data from OpenStreetMap.org and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data from NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

System.Xml.XmlException:Invalid character in the given encoding

http://viewfinderpanoramas.org/dem3.html

Source this link for HGT files, the file 

N55E012.hgt file produces the following error.

What is the workaround for this error

I found this workaround

How to prevent System.Xml.XmlException: Invalid character in the gi...

in C# 

what's the python route?