diff --git a/ext/standard/string.c b/ext/standard/string.c
index d9290a05c83..4aa11121346 100644
--- a/ext/standard/string.c
+++ b/ext/standard/string.c
@@ -4711,6 +4711,7 @@ PHPAPI size_t php_strip_tags_ex(char *rbuf, size_t len, int *stateptr, const cha
 	size_t pos, i = 0;
 	char *allow_free = NULL;
 	const char *allow_actual;
+	char is_xml = 0;
 
 	if (stateptr)
 		state = *stateptr;
@@ -4806,7 +4807,10 @@ PHPAPI size_t php_strip_tags_ex(char *rbuf, size_t len, int *stateptr, const cha
 				switch (state) {
 					case 1: /* HTML/XML */
 						lc = '>';
-						in_q = state = 0;
+						if (is_xml && *(p -1) == '-') {
+							break;
+						}
+						in_q = state = is_xml = 0;
 						if (allow) {
 							if (tp - tbuf >= PHP_TAG_BUF_SIZE) {
 								pos = tp - tbuf;
@@ -4935,8 +4939,8 @@ PHPAPI size_t php_strip_tags_ex(char *rbuf, size_t len, int *stateptr, const cha
 				 * state == 2 (PHP). Switch back to HTML.
 				 */
 
-				if (state == 2 && p > buf+2 && strncasecmp(p-2, "xm", 2) == 0) {
-					state = 1;
+				if (state == 2 && p > buf+2 && strncasecmp(p-4, "<?xm", 4) == 0) {
+					state = 1; is_xml=1;
 					break;
 				}
 
diff --git a/ext/standard/tests/strings/bug70720.phpt b/ext/standard/tests/strings/bug70720.phpt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6cdc600c2da
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ext/standard/tests/strings/bug70720.phpt
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+--TEST--
+Bug #70720 (strip_tags() doesnt handle "xml" correctly)
+--FILE--
+<?php
+var_dump(strip_tags('<?php $dom->test(); ?> this is a test'));
+var_dump(strip_tags('<?php $xml->test(); ?> this is a test'));
+var_dump(strip_tags('<?xml $xml->test(); ?> this is a test'));
+
+/* "->" case in HTML */
+var_dump(strip_tags("<span class=sf-dump-> this is a test</span>"));
+?>
+--EXPECTF--
+string(15) " this is a test"
+string(15) " this is a test"
+string(15) " this is a test"
+string(15) " this is a test"