diff --git a/C/iopreds.c b/C/iopreds.c
index 2631cb2ef..cb4549285 100644
--- a/C/iopreds.c
+++ b/C/iopreds.c
@@ -3870,7 +3870,8 @@ static Int
       } else {
 	if (tokstart != NULL && tokstart->Tok != Ord (eot_tok)) {
 	  /* we got the end of file from an abort */
-	  if (!strcmp(Yap_ErrorMessage,"Abort")) {
+	  if (Yap_ErrorMessage &&
+	      strcmp(Yap_ErrorMessage,"Abort")) {
 	    Yap_clean_tokenizer(tokstart, Yap_VarTable, Yap_AnonVarTable);
 	    return FALSE;
 	  }