diff --git a/CHANGELOG.rst b/CHANGELOG.rst
index e38a722..bdd0f54 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.rst
+++ b/CHANGELOG.rst
@@ -7,6 +7,12 @@ Changelog
 .. This document is user facing. Please word the changes in such a way
 .. that users understand how the changes affect the new version.
 
+version 0.5.1
+-----------------
++ Fix a bug where ``gzip_ng_threaded.open`` could
+  cause a hang when the program exited and the program was not used with a
+  context manager.
+
 version 0.5.0
 -----------------
 + Wheels are now build for MacOS arm64 architectures.
diff --git a/src/zlib_ng/gzip_ng_threaded.py b/src/zlib_ng/gzip_ng_threaded.py
index 5b8a9ff..7fa7249 100644
--- a/src/zlib_ng/gzip_ng_threaded.py
+++ b/src/zlib_ng/gzip_ng_threaded.py
@@ -98,7 +98,8 @@ def __init__(self, filename, queue_size=2, block_size=1024 * 1024):
         self.exception = None
         self.buffer = io.BytesIO()
         self.block_size = block_size
-        self.worker = threading.Thread(target=self._decompress)
+        # Using a daemon thread prevents programs freezing on error.
+        self.worker = threading.Thread(target=self._decompress, daemon=True)
         self._closed = False
         self.running = True
         self.worker.start()
@@ -231,9 +232,10 @@ def __init__(self,
                 queue.Queue(queue_size) for _ in range(threads)]
             self.output_queues: List[queue.Queue[Tuple[bytes, int, int]]] = [
                 queue.Queue(queue_size) for _ in range(threads)]
-            self.output_worker = threading.Thread(target=self._write)
+            # Using daemon threads prevents a program freezing on error.
+            self.output_worker = threading.Thread(target=self._write, daemon=True)
             self.compression_workers = [
-                threading.Thread(target=self._compress, args=(i,))
+                threading.Thread(target=self._compress, args=(i,), daemon=True)
                 for i in range(threads)
             ]
         elif threads == 1:
@@ -241,7 +243,7 @@ def __init__(self,
             self.output_queues = []
             self.compression_workers = []
             self.output_worker = threading.Thread(
-                target=self._compress_and_write)
+                target=self._compress_and_write, daemon=True)
         else:
             raise ValueError(f"threads should be at least 1, got {threads}")
         self.threads = threads
diff --git a/tests/test_gzip_ng_threaded.py b/tests/test_gzip_ng_threaded.py
index 1032a67..7ed06de 100644
--- a/tests/test_gzip_ng_threaded.py
+++ b/tests/test_gzip_ng_threaded.py
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@
 import io
 import itertools
 import os
+import subprocess
+import sys
 import tempfile
 from pathlib import Path
 
@@ -209,3 +211,22 @@ def test_threaded_writer_does_not_close_stream():
     assert not test_stream.closed
     test_stream.seek(0)
     assert gzip.decompress(test_stream.read()) == b"thisisatest"
+
+
+@pytest.mark.timeout(5)
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    ["mode", "threads"], itertools.product(["rb", "wb"], [1, 2]))
+def test_threaded_program_can_exit_on_error(tmp_path, mode, threads):
+    program = tmp_path / "no_context_manager.py"
+    test_file = tmp_path / "output.gz"
+    # Write 40 mb input data to saturate read buffer. Because of the repetitive
+    # nature the resulting gzip file is very small (~40 KiB).
+    test_file.write_bytes(gzip.compress(b"test" * (10 * 1024 * 1024)))
+    with open(program, "wt") as f:
+        f.write("from zlib_ng import gzip_ng_threaded\n")
+        f.write(
+            f"f = gzip_ng_threaded.open('{test_file}', "
+            f"mode='{mode}', threads={threads})\n"
+        )
+        f.write("raise Exception('Error')\n")
+    subprocess.run([sys.executable, str(program)])