diff --git a/packages/core/src/lib/markdown-it/markdown-it-escape-special-tags.js b/packages/core/src/lib/markdown-it/markdown-it-escape-special-tags.js
index ab8654d39f..e512a363f0 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/lib/markdown-it/markdown-it-escape-special-tags.js
+++ b/packages/core/src/lib/markdown-it/markdown-it-escape-special-tags.js
@@ -12,7 +12,20 @@ function escape_plugin(md, tagsToIgnore) {
   const specialTagsRegex = Array.from(tagsToIgnore)
     .concat(['script|pre|style|variable'])
     .join('|');
-  const startingSpecialTagRegex = new RegExp(`^<(${specialTagsRegex})(?=(\\s|>|$))`, 'i');
+
+  // attr_name, unquoted ... attribute patterns adapted from markdown-it/lib/common/html_re
+  // Construct self-closing negative lookahead for special tags,
+  // because if matched, the endingSpecialTagRegex will roll down to find a non-existent closing tag
+  const attr_name = '[a-zA-Z_:][a-zA-Z0-9:._-]*';
+  const unquoted      = '[^"\'=<>`\\x00-\\x20]+';
+  const single_quoted = "'[^']*'";
+  const double_quoted = '"[^"]*"';
+  const attr_value  = '(?:' + unquoted + '|' + single_quoted + '|' + double_quoted + ')';
+  const attribute   = '(?:\\s+' + attr_name + '(?:\\s*=\\s*' + attr_value + ')?)';
+  const selfClosingNegativeLookahead = `(?!${attribute}*\\s*\/>)`;
+
+  const startingSpecialTagRegex = new RegExp(
+    `^<(${specialTagsRegex})${selfClosingNegativeLookahead}(?=(\\s|>|$))`, 'i');
   const endingSpecialTagRegex = new RegExp(`<\\/(${specialTagsRegex})>`, 'i');
 
   const HTML_SEQUENCES = [