diff --git a/src/_thread/__init__.py b/src/_thread/__init__.py
index 63dced6e..d7a220d5 100644
--- a/src/_thread/__init__.py
+++ b/src/_thread/__init__.py
@@ -3,7 +3,10 @@
 __future_module__ = True
 
 if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
-    from dummy_thread import *
+    try:
+        from thread import *
+    except ImportError:
+        from dummy_thread import *
 else:
     raise ImportError('This package should not be accessible on Python 3. '
                       'Either you are trying to run from the python-future src folder '