diff --git a/src/modules/spider/xml.c b/src/modules/spider/xml.c
index fc00643271533d1d1e5cb738ce0a85509db1df69..3965a796af5f0f142192e2260fede15e3c00db39 100644
--- a/src/modules/spider/xml.c
+++ b/src/modules/spider/xml.c
@@ -2489,6 +2489,11 @@ static struct pike_string *very_low_parse_xml(struct xmldata *data,
 
 	    switch(PEEK(0))
 	    {
+	      default:
+		XMLERROR("Failed to find end of tag.");
+		pop_n_elems(3);
+		break;
+
 	      case '>':
 		READ(1);