diff --git a/texprlcount.pl b/texprlcount.pl
index 93b7d25..30b4f22 100755
--- a/texprlcount.pl
+++ b/texprlcount.pl
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ (&@)
 close $texfileh;
 
 # We strip comments from the tex file
-$texfile =~ s/[^\\]%[^\n]*//g;
+$texfile =~ s/(?<!\\)%.*//g;
 
 # We count the number of characters in the abstract
 my $abstract;