diff --git a/ext/liquid_c/lexer.c b/ext/liquid_c/lexer.c
index 490e5375..39429acc 100644
--- a/ext/liquid_c/lexer.c
+++ b/ext/liquid_c/lexer.c
@@ -144,19 +144,33 @@ const char *lex_one(const char *start, const char *end, lexer_token_t *token)
 
     if (is_special(c)) RETURN_TOKEN(c, 1);
 
+    int remaining_str_len = end - str;
+
     // read multibyte UTF-8 character
     if ((c & 0x80) == 0) {
         // 1-byte character
         rb_enc_raise(utf8_encoding, cLiquidSyntaxError, "Unexpected character %c", c);
     } else if ((c & 0xE0) == 0xC0) {
         // 2-byte character
-        rb_enc_raise(utf8_encoding, cLiquidSyntaxError, "Unexpected character %c%c", c, str[1]);
+        if (remaining_str_len < 2) {
+            rb_raise(rb_eArgError, "invalid byte sequence in UTF-8");
+        } else {
+            rb_enc_raise(utf8_encoding, cLiquidSyntaxError, "Unexpected character %c%c", c, str[1]);
+        }
     } else if ((c & 0xF0) == 0xE0) {
         // 3-byte character
-        rb_enc_raise(utf8_encoding, cLiquidSyntaxError, "Unexpected character %c%c%c", c, str[1], str[2]);
+        if (remaining_str_len < 3) {
+            rb_raise(rb_eArgError, "invalid byte sequence in UTF-8");
+        } else {
+            rb_enc_raise(utf8_encoding, cLiquidSyntaxError, "Unexpected character %c%c%c", c, str[1], str[2]);
+        }
     } else if ((c & 0xF8) == 0xF0) {
         // 4-byte character
-        rb_enc_raise(utf8_encoding, cLiquidSyntaxError, "Unexpected character %c%c%c%c", c, str[1], str[2], str[3]);
+        if (remaining_str_len < 4) {
+            rb_raise(rb_eArgError, "invalid byte sequence in UTF-8");
+        } else {
+            rb_enc_raise(utf8_encoding, cLiquidSyntaxError, "Unexpected character %c%c%c%c", c, str[1], str[2], str[3]);
+        }
     } else {
         // this should never happen
         rb_enc_raise(utf8_encoding, cLiquidSyntaxError, "Unexpected character %c", c);
diff --git a/test/unit/variable_test.rb b/test/unit/variable_test.rb
index 61c550b8..beab9cf6 100644
--- a/test/unit/variable_test.rb
+++ b/test/unit/variable_test.rb
@@ -283,6 +283,44 @@ def test_encoding_error_message_with_multi_byte_characters
     )
   end
 
+  def test_invalid_utf8_sequence
+    # 2 byte character with 1 byte missing
+    exc = assert_raises(ArgumentError) do
+      variable_strict_parse("\xC0")
+    end
+    assert_equal("invalid byte sequence in UTF-8", exc.message)
+
+    # 3 byte character with 1 byte missing
+    exc = assert_raises(ArgumentError) do
+      variable_strict_parse("\xE0\x01")
+    end
+    assert_equal("invalid byte sequence in UTF-8", exc.message)
+
+    # 3 byte character with 2 byte missing
+    exc = assert_raises(ArgumentError) do
+      variable_strict_parse("\xE0")
+    end
+    assert_equal("invalid byte sequence in UTF-8", exc.message)
+
+    # 4 byte character with 1 byte missing
+    exc = assert_raises(ArgumentError) do
+      variable_strict_parse("\xF0\x01\x01")
+    end
+    assert_equal("invalid byte sequence in UTF-8", exc.message)
+
+    # 4 byte character with 2 byte missing
+    exc = assert_raises(ArgumentError) do
+      variable_strict_parse("\xF0\x01")
+    end
+    assert_equal("invalid byte sequence in UTF-8", exc.message)
+
+    # 4 byte character with 3 byte missing
+    exc = assert_raises(ArgumentError) do
+      variable_strict_parse("\xF0")
+    end
+    assert_equal("invalid byte sequence in UTF-8", exc.message)
+  end
+
   private
 
   def variable_strict_parse(markup)