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Gold soared as much as 8 percent to its highest in more than two years on Friday after Britain delivered a shock vote to leave the European Union, leaving investors to seek protection in the precious metal.

On Thursday, the precious metal settled lower Thursday for a fifth straight day in the wake of polling ahead of Thursday’s so-called Brexit referendum that signaled a slight edge to the “remain” camp.

Gold delivered double-digit percentage gains in sterling terms, topping 1,000 pounds an ounce for the first time in more than three years, while gold priced in euros rallied as much as 13 percent.

The metal pulled back from early highs however as the dollar, in which it is priced, headed for its biggest daily gain since 1978against a currency basket, but remained elevated.

“Gold will be a preferred safe-haven asset with a ‘Leave’ vote,” said Barnabas Gan, an economist at Singapore-based Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, who forecast that it could rally to as much as $1,400 if ‘Remain’ loses. Bullion’s expected to remain volatile until the final verdict is out, according to Gan.

”The surging gold price clearly shows the panic sweeping financial markets,” Adrian Ash, head of research at BullionVault, told MarketWatch.

“This is just the kind of crisis which gold helps savers and investors insure against. Gold offers certainty and security as stock markets and currencies sink, just as it did during the 2008 meltdown. The difference is that this shock was clearly signposted, and many private investors didn’t wait for today’s result to get prepared,” Ash said.

Reference: Reuters