diff --git a/Zend/zend_compile.c b/Zend/zend_compile.c
index 03faf9c96e445..c56c9a68d7814 100644
--- a/Zend/zend_compile.c
+++ b/Zend/zend_compile.c
@@ -6109,6 +6109,11 @@ static void zend_compile_declare(zend_ast *ast) /* {{{ */
 				zend_error_noreturn(E_COMPILE_ERROR, "Encoding declaration pragma must be "
 					"the very first statement in the script");
 			}
+
+			if (ast->child[1] != NULL) {
+				zend_error_noreturn(E_COMPILE_ERROR, "Encoding declaration pragma must not "
+					"use block mode");
+			}
 		} else if (zend_string_equals_literal_ci(name, "strict_types")) {
 			zval value_zv;
 
diff --git a/ext/mbstring/tests/zend_multibyte-11.phpt b/ext/mbstring/tests/zend_multibyte-11.phpt
index bec2c482d6594..5f9d1a82b4be8 100644
--- a/ext/mbstring/tests/zend_multibyte-11.phpt
+++ b/ext/mbstring/tests/zend_multibyte-11.phpt
@@ -12,4 +12,4 @@ declare(encoding="ISO-8859-15") {
 }
 ?>
 --EXPECTF--
-Fatal error: Encoding declaration pragma must be the very first statement in the script in %s on line %d
+Fatal error: Encoding declaration pragma must not use block mode in %s on line %d
diff --git a/ext/mbstring/tests/zend_multibyte-15.phpt b/ext/mbstring/tests/zend_multibyte-15.phpt
index bcf4ebe59d8ed..030869e0c5679 100644
--- a/ext/mbstring/tests/zend_multibyte-15.phpt
+++ b/ext/mbstring/tests/zend_multibyte-15.phpt
@@ -13,6 +13,5 @@ declare(encoding="UTF-8") {
     echo "ok\n";
 }
 ?>
---EXPECT--
-ok
-ok
+--EXPECTF--
+Fatal error: Encoding declaration pragma must not use block mode in %s on line %d
diff --git a/ext/mbstring/tests/zend_multibyte-16.phpt b/ext/mbstring/tests/zend_multibyte-16.phpt
index ed02f6895b18d..d560fdcaa9659 100644
--- a/ext/mbstring/tests/zend_multibyte-16.phpt
+++ b/ext/mbstring/tests/zend_multibyte-16.phpt
@@ -11,6 +11,5 @@ declare(encoding="ISO-8859-15") {
 }
 echo "ok\n";
 ?>
---EXPECT--
-ok
-ok
+--EXPECTF--
+Fatal error: Encoding declaration pragma must not use block mode in %s on line %d