Htmlspecialchars() expects parameter 1 to be string array given laravel validation

The below view throws the following error: htmlspecialchars() expects parameter 1 to be string, array given. Weirdly enough this code worked fine for a while before this error popped up.

(The error only comes when the following form is posted. There are no errors while the view is being loaded)

@extends($template)

@section('content')



    


        
        


            
Report Incident
            

            

                {{ csrf_field() }}
                

                    Title
                    
                    

                        {{ $errors->first('title') }}
                    
                
                

                    Date of incident
                    
                    

                        {{ $errors->first('date') }}
                    
                
                

                    Incident Type
                    
                        @foreach($types as $type => $icon)
                            @if($type == old('type'))
                                {{ $type }}
                            @else
                                {{ $type }}
                            @endif
                        @endforeach
                    
                    

                            {{ $errors->first('type') }}
                    
                
                

                    Description
                    {{ old('description') }}
                    

                        {{ $errors->first('description') }}
                    
                
                

                    Upload images (if any)
                    
                    

                        {{ $errors->first('images') }}
                    
                

                

                    Select Province
                    
                        @foreach($provinces as $province)
                            @if($province == old('$province'))
                                {{ $province }}
                            @else
                                {{ $province }}
                            @endif
                        @endforeach
                    
                    

                        {{ $errors->first('province') }}
                    
                
                

                    Please type in a location
                    
                    

                        {{ $errors->first('pac-input') }}
                    
                
                

                    Please select an approximate location from the map
                    

                
                

                    Latitude
                    
                
                

                    Longitude
                    
                
                



                
                

                    


                
            

        

    
    







@endsection

I think it has something to do with my declaration of my file uploads input:

                    Upload images (if any)
                    
                    

                        {{ $errors->first('images') }}
                    

The name I have given the following input is images[] since I want multiple images to be uploaded. When I change the name from images[] to images, the error seems to go away but no images are uploaded/saved (if needed the code to handle the backend image uploading can be posted as well).