diff --git a/xmlreader.c b/xmlreader.c
index 5e486c68..4461b36a 100644
--- a/xmlreader.c
+++ b/xmlreader.c
@@ -2264,17 +2264,19 @@ xmlFreeTextReader(xmlTextReaderPtr reader) {
     if (reader->ctxt != NULL) {
         if (reader->dict == reader->ctxt->dict)
 	    reader->dict = NULL;
+	if ((reader->ctxt->vctxt.vstateTab != NULL) &&
+	    (reader->ctxt->vctxt.vstateMax > 0)){
+            while (reader->ctxt->vctxt.vstateNr > 0)
+                xmlValidatePopElement(&reader->ctxt->vctxt, NULL, NULL, NULL);
+	    xmlFree(reader->ctxt->vctxt.vstateTab);
+	    reader->ctxt->vctxt.vstateTab = NULL;
+	    reader->ctxt->vctxt.vstateMax = 0;
+	}
 	if (reader->ctxt->myDoc != NULL) {
 	    if (reader->preserve == 0)
 		xmlTextReaderFreeDoc(reader, reader->ctxt->myDoc);
 	    reader->ctxt->myDoc = NULL;
 	}
-	if ((reader->ctxt->vctxt.vstateTab != NULL) &&
-	    (reader->ctxt->vctxt.vstateMax > 0)){
-	    xmlFree(reader->ctxt->vctxt.vstateTab);
-	    reader->ctxt->vctxt.vstateTab = NULL;
-	    reader->ctxt->vctxt.vstateMax = 0;
-	}
 	if (reader->allocs & XML_TEXTREADER_CTXT)
 	    xmlFreeParserCtxt(reader->ctxt);
     }