diff --git a/ext/zlib/zlib.c b/ext/zlib/zlib.c
index 982933b..87087fa 100644
--- a/ext/zlib/zlib.c
+++ b/ext/zlib/zlib.c
@@ -4496,6 +4496,12 @@ gzreader_gets(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE obj)
 	else {
 	    n += (rb_len_t)(res - p);
 	    p = res;
+	    if (maxlen > 1 &&
+		rb_enc_left_char_head(RSTRING_PTR(gz->z.buf), p, RSTRING_PTR(gz->z.buf) + ZSTREAM_BUF_FILLED(&gz->z), enc) != p) {
+		/* the match starts inside a multibyte character: keep searching */
+		p++, n++;
+		continue;
+	    }
 	    if (rslen == 1 || memcmp(p, rsptr, rslen) == 0) break;
 	    p++, n++;
 	}
diff --git a/test/zlib/test_zlib.rb b/test/zlib/test_zlib.rb
index 1f9cb81..7e706f7 100644
--- a/test/zlib/test_zlib.rb
+++ b/test/zlib/test_zlib.rb
@@ -1367,6 +1367,20 @@ def test_reader_wrap
       }
     end
 
+    def test_gets_separator_inside_multibyte_char
+      pend "rb_io_extract_encoding_option ignores the encoding options on TruffleRuby" if RUBY_ENGINE == 'truffleruby'
+      # In Shift_JIS the second byte of a character can be an ASCII byte such
+      # as "@"; a separator must only match on a character boundary.
+      content = "\x81\x40?\x81\x40@".b
+      r = Zlib::GzipReader.new(StringIO.new(Zlib.gzip(content)), external_encoding: "Shift_JIS")
+      assert_equal(content.dup.force_encoding("Shift_JIS"), r.gets("@"))
+      assert_nil(r.gets("@"))
+      r = Zlib::GzipReader.new(StringIO.new(Zlib.gzip(content)), external_encoding: "Shift_JIS")
+      assert_equal("\x81\x40?".b.force_encoding("Shift_JIS"), r.gets("?"))
+      assert_equal("\x81\x40@".b.force_encoding("Shift_JIS"), r.gets("?"))
+      assert_nil(r.gets("?"))
+    end
+
     def test_corrupted_header
       gz = Zlib::GzipWriter.new(StringIO.new(s = "".dup))
       gz.orig_name = "X"