diff --git a/ext/intl/locale/locale_methods.cpp b/ext/intl/locale/locale_methods.cpp
index 7f0ab0749f2b0..5cf6928a8cd3c 100644
--- a/ext/intl/locale/locale_methods.cpp
+++ b/ext/intl/locale/locale_methods.cpp
@@ -1287,6 +1287,7 @@ U_CFUNC PHP_FUNCTION(locale_filter_matches)
 		/* canonicalize lang_tag */
 		can_lang_tag = get_icu_value_internal( lang_tag , LOC_CANONICALIZE_TAG , &result ,  0);
 		if( result <=0) {
+			zend_string_release_ex( can_loc_range, false );
 			intl_error_set(NULL, status, "unable to canonicalize lang_tag");
 			RETURN_FALSE;
 		}