diff --git a/src/lib/svg_text_utils.js b/src/lib/svg_text_utils.js
index cdabebdf8c3..7150d3a05ed 100644
--- a/src/lib/svg_text_utils.js
+++ b/src/lib/svg_text_utils.js
@@ -400,7 +400,15 @@ function buildSVGText(containerNode, str) {
     }
 
     function exitNode(type) {
+        // A bare closing tag can't close the root node. If we encounter this it
+        // means there's an extra closing tag that can just be ignored:
+        if(nodeStack.length === 1) {
+            Lib.log('Ignoring unexpected end tag </' + type + '>.', str);
+            return;
+        }
+
         var innerNode = nodeStack.pop();
+
         if(type !== innerNode.type) {
             Lib.log('Start tag <' + innerNode.type + '> doesnt match end tag <' +
                 type + '>. Pretending it did match.', str);
diff --git a/test/jasmine/tests/svg_text_utils_test.js b/test/jasmine/tests/svg_text_utils_test.js
index f0350389cf3..d5552976d87 100644
--- a/test/jasmine/tests/svg_text_utils_test.js
+++ b/test/jasmine/tests/svg_text_utils_test.js
@@ -371,5 +371,19 @@ describe('svg+text utils', function() {
                     opener(2.6) + 'modified' + closer, textCase);
             });
         });
+
+        it('ignores bare closing tags', function() {
+            var node = mockTextSVGElement('</sub>');
+
+            // sub shows up as a zero-width space (u200B) on either side of the 5:
+            expect(node.text()).toEqual('');
+        });
+
+        it('ignores extra closing tags', function() {
+            var node = mockTextSVGElement('test<sub>5</sub></sub>more');
+
+            // sub shows up as a zero-width space (u200B) on either side of the 5:
+            expect(node.text()).toEqual('test\u200b5\u200bmore');
+        });
     });
 });