diff --git a/Shorewall-perl/Shorewall/Chains.pm b/Shorewall-perl/Shorewall/Chains.pm
index f69520923..f846bf3ae 100644
--- a/Shorewall-perl/Shorewall/Chains.pm
+++ b/Shorewall-perl/Shorewall/Chains.pm
@@ -265,6 +265,7 @@ sub process_comment() {
     if ( $capabilities{COMMENTS} ) {
 	( $comment = $line ) =~ s/^\s*COMMENT\s*//;
 	fatal_error "COMMENT lines may not contain double quotes" if $comment =~ /"/;
+	fatal_error "Invalid COMMENT line" if length $line >= 2 && substr( $line, -1) eq '\\';
     } else {
 	warning_message "COMMENT ignored -- requires comment support in iptables/Netfilter";
     }