diff --git a/administrator/components/com_search/helpers/search.php b/administrator/components/com_search/helpers/search.php
index a096b90b3bb92..6e3720f7aea51 100644
--- a/administrator/components/com_search/helpers/search.php
+++ b/administrator/components/com_search/helpers/search.php
@@ -347,7 +347,12 @@ public static function _smartSubstr($text, $searchword)
 		}
 		else
 		{
-			if (($wordpos = @StringHelper::strpos($text, ' ', $length)) !== false)
+			if (($mbtextlen = StringHelper::strlen($text)) < $length)
+			{
+				$length = $mbtextlen;
+			}
+
+			if (($wordpos = StringHelper::strpos($text, ' ', $length)) !== false)
 			{
 				return StringHelper::substr($text, 0, $wordpos) . '&#160;...';
 			}