diff --git a/parser.c b/parser.c
index b39aa59c..1b80a8c5 100644
--- a/parser.c
+++ b/parser.c
@@ -9565,7 +9565,7 @@ xmlParseElement(xmlParserCtxtPtr ctxt) {
     const xmlChar *prefix = NULL;
     const xmlChar *URI = NULL;
     xmlParserNodeInfo node_info;
-    int line, tlen;
+    int line, tlen = 0;
     xmlNodePtr ret;
     int nsNr = ctxt->nsNr;