diff --git a/src/utils.ts b/src/utils.ts
index 8cd93d04..fdbdd168 100644
--- a/src/utils.ts
+++ b/src/utils.ts
@@ -157,7 +157,7 @@ export function isValidHexColor(hex: string): boolean {
  * Escapes regular expression characters in a given string
  */
 export function escapeRegExpCharacters(value: string): string {
-	return value.replace(/[\-\\\{\}\*\+\?\|\^\$\.\,\[\]\(\)\#\s]/g, '\\$&');
+	return value.replace(/[\\|([{}\]).?*+^$]/g, '\\$&');
 }
 
 export class CachedFn<TKey, TValue> {
diff --git a/test-cases/suite1/fixtures/239.tmLanguage.json b/test-cases/suite1/fixtures/239.tmLanguage.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..8c8ce758
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test-cases/suite1/fixtures/239.tmLanguage.json
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+{
+	"$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RedCMD/TmLanguage-Syntax-Highlighter/main/vscode.tmLanguage.schema.json",
+	"scopeName": "source.backreference-escaping",
+	"patterns": [
+		{
+			"begin": "^(#)(\\S+)",
+			"end": "(?x)\\1\n[\\2]+",
+			"name": "string",
+			"endCaptures": { "0": { "name": "$0" } }
+		}
+	]
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test-cases/suite1/tests.json b/test-cases/suite1/tests.json
index e49cc299..5ffc6679 100644
--- a/test-cases/suite1/tests.json
+++ b/test-cases/suite1/tests.json
@@ -1875,5 +1875,41 @@
 				]
 			}
 		]
+	},
+	{
+		"grammars": [
+			"fixtures/239.tmLanguage.json"
+		],
+		"grammarPath": "fixtures/239.tmLanguage.json",
+		"desc": "Issue #239 Wrong backreference escaping",
+		"lines": [
+			{
+				"line": "#a-z comment",
+				"tokens": [
+					{
+						"value": "#a-z",
+						"scopes": [
+							"source.backreference-escaping",
+							"string"
+						]
+					},
+					{
+						"value": " ",
+						"scopes": [
+							"source.backreference-escaping",
+							"string"
+						]
+					},
+					{
+						"value": "comment",
+						"scopes": [
+							"source.backreference-escaping",
+							"string",
+							"comment"
+						]
+					}
+				]
+			}
+		]
 	}
 ]
\ No newline at end of file