diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Encoder/XmlEncoder.php b/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Encoder/XmlEncoder.php
index 7923a75a1f..872949edda 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Encoder/XmlEncoder.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Encoder/XmlEncoder.php
@@ -76,6 +76,10 @@ class XmlEncoder extends SerializerAwareEncoder implements EncoderInterface, Dec
         libxml_use_internal_errors($internalErrors);
         libxml_disable_entity_loader($disableEntities);
 
+        if ($error = libxml_get_last_error()) {
+            throw new UnexpectedValueException($error->message);
+        }
+
         foreach ($dom->childNodes as $child) {
             if ($child->nodeType === XML_DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE) {
                 throw new UnexpectedValueException('Document types are not allowed.');
diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Tests/Encoder/XmlEncoderTest.php b/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Tests/Encoder/XmlEncoderTest.php
index b23d4c7939..07d8bd60d9 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Tests/Encoder/XmlEncoderTest.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Tests/Encoder/XmlEncoderTest.php
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@ use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Normalizer\CustomNormalizer;
 
 class XmlEncoderTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
 {
+    private $encoder;
+
     protected function setUp()
     {
         $this->encoder = new XmlEncoder;
@@ -301,6 +303,14 @@ class XmlEncoderTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
         $this->assertEquals($expected, $this->encoder->decode($xml, 'xml'));
     }
 
+    /**
+     * @expectedException \Symfony\Component\Serializer\Exception\UnexpectedValueException
+     */
+    public function testDecodeInvalidXml()
+    {
+        $this->encoder->decode('<?xml version="1.0"?><invalid><xml>', 'xml');
+    }
+
     public function testPreventsComplexExternalEntities()
     {
         $oldCwd = getcwd();