diff --git a/Parsedown.php b/Parsedown.php
index 20db134..1b26581 100755
--- a/Parsedown.php
+++ b/Parsedown.php
@@ -982,7 +982,7 @@ class Parsedown
             return;
         }
 
-        if (preg_match('/\bhttps?:[\/]{2}[^\s]+\b\/*/ui', $text, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE))
+        if (preg_match('/\bhttps?:[\/]{2}[^\s<]+\b\/*/ui', $text, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE))
         {
             $url = str_replace(array('&', '<'), array('&amp;', '&lt;'), $matches[0][0]);
 
diff --git a/test/data/span-level_html.html b/test/data/span-level_html.html
index 590b634..f852a25 100644
--- a/test/data/span-level_html.html
+++ b/test/data/span-level_html.html
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 <p>an <b>important</b> <a href=''>link</a></p>
 <p>broken<br/>
 line</p>
-<p><b>inline tag</b> at the beginning</p>
\ No newline at end of file
+<p><b>inline tag</b> at the beginning</p>
+<p><span><a href="http://example.com">http://example.com</a></span></p>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/data/span-level_html.md b/test/data/span-level_html.md
index aadf6fc..f221965 100644
--- a/test/data/span-level_html.md
+++ b/test/data/span-level_html.md
@@ -3,4 +3,6 @@ an <b>important</b> <a href=''>link</a>
 broken<br/>
 line
 
-<b>inline tag</b> at the beginning
\ No newline at end of file
+<b>inline tag</b> at the beginning
+
+<span>http://example.com</span>
\ No newline at end of file