diff --git a/authorities/authorities-home.pl b/authorities/authorities-home.pl
index e4f9bc471d..84122ed0e8 100755
--- a/authorities/authorities-home.pl
+++ b/authorities/authorities-home.pl
@@ -88,18 +88,6 @@ if ( $op eq "do_search" ) {
     my $resultsperpage = $query->param('resultsperpage') || 20;
     my $offset = ( $startfrom - 1 ) * $resultsperpage + 1;
 
-    my $builder = Koha::SearchEngine::QueryBuilder->new(
-        { index => $Koha::SearchEngine::AUTHORITIES_INDEX } );
-    my $searcher = Koha::SearchEngine::Search->new(
-        { index => $Koha::SearchEngine::AUTHORITIES_INDEX } );
-    my $search_query = $builder->build_authorities_query_compat(
-        [$marclist], [$and_or], [$excluding], [$operator],
-        [$value], $authtypecode, $orderby
-    );
-    my ( $results, $total ) = $searcher->search_auth_compat(
-        $search_query, $offset, $resultsperpage
-    );
-
     ( $template, $loggedinuser, $cookie ) = get_template_and_user(
         {
             template_name   => "authorities/searchresultlist.tt",
@@ -109,6 +97,27 @@ if ( $op eq "do_search" ) {
         }
     );
 
+    my $builder = Koha::SearchEngine::QueryBuilder->new(
+        { index => $Koha::SearchEngine::AUTHORITIES_INDEX } );
+    my $searcher = Koha::SearchEngine::Search->new(
+        { index => $Koha::SearchEngine::AUTHORITIES_INDEX } );
+
+    my $search_query = $builder->build_authorities_query_compat(
+        [$marclist], [$and_or], [$excluding], [$operator],
+        [$value], $authtypecode, $orderby
+    );
+    my ( $results, $total );
+    eval {
+        ( $results, $total ) = $searcher->search_auth_compat(
+            $search_query, $offset, $resultsperpage
+        );
+    };
+    if ($@) {
+        my $query_error = q{};
+        $query_error .= $@ if $@;
+        $template->param(query_error => $query_error);
+    }
+
     $template->param( search_query => $search_query ) if C4::Context->preference('DumpSearchQueryTemplate');
     $template->param(
         csrf_token => Koha::Token->new->generate_csrf({
diff --git a/koha-tmpl/intranet-tmpl/prog/en/modules/authorities/searchresultlist.tt b/koha-tmpl/intranet-tmpl/prog/en/modules/authorities/searchresultlist.tt
index cb6ff2deef..6d5baf41e4 100644
--- a/koha-tmpl/intranet-tmpl/prog/en/modules/authorities/searchresultlist.tt
+++ b/koha-tmpl/intranet-tmpl/prog/en/modules/authorities/searchresultlist.tt
@@ -48,6 +48,10 @@
 
 <div id="merge_in_progress" class="page-section bg-info" style="display:none;"></div>
 <div class="page-section">
+    [% IF ( query_error ) %]
+        <div class="dialog alert"><p><strong>Error:</strong> [% query_error | html %]</p></div>
+    [% END %]
+
     [% IF ( total ) %]
     <div class="pages">[% pagination_bar | $raw %]</div>