diff --git a/lib/redis/namespace.rb b/lib/redis/namespace.rb
index 0705321..0fac1da 100644
--- a/lib/redis/namespace.rb
+++ b/lib/redis/namespace.rb
@@ -488,7 +488,14 @@ def rem_namespace(key)
           key.each { |k| yielder.yield rem_namespace(k) }
         end
       else
-        key.to_s.sub(/\A#{@namespace}:/, '')
+        string_key = key.to_s.dup
+        if string_key.respond_to? :force_encoding
+          # force_encoding is not available in ruby 1.8.7
+          rem_key = string_key.force_encoding('BINARY')
+        else
+          rem_key = string_key
+        end
+        rem_key.sub(/\A#{@namespace}:/, '')
       end
     end
 
diff --git a/spec/redis_spec.rb b/spec/redis_spec.rb
index 0499518..22ec375 100644
--- a/spec/redis_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/redis_spec.rb
@@ -366,6 +366,22 @@
     @namespaced['foo'].should eq(nil)
   end
 
+  it "should not throw exception on invalid UTF-8 sequences in keys" do
+    @namespaced.set("f\xFCo", 'bar')
+    @namespaced.set("foo", 'bar')
+    @namespaced.get("f\xFCo").should eq('bar')
+    keys = @namespaced.keys.sort
+    # force_encoding is not available in ruby 1.8.7
+    if "".respond_to? :force_encoding
+      keys.should eq ["f\xFCo".force_encoding('BINARY'), "foo"].sort
+    else
+      keys.should eq ["f\xFCo", "foo"].sort
+    end
+    keys.each do |k|
+      @namespaced.get(k).should eq('bar')
+    end
+  end
+
   it "should respond to :namespace=" do
     @namespaced.respond_to?(:namespace=).should eq(true)
   end