diff --git a/src/api.rs b/src/api.rs
index 3b4aa3a..ca76558 100644
--- a/src/api.rs
+++ b/src/api.rs
@@ -439,6 +439,10 @@ fn search(request: &mut Request, db: &DB) -> IronResult<Response> {
 		.url
 		.path()
 		.join(&::std::path::MAIN_SEPARATOR.to_string());
+	let query = match percent_decode(query.as_bytes()).decode_utf8() {
+		Ok(s) => s,
+		Err(_) => return Err(Error::from(ErrorKind::EncodingError).into()),
+	};
 	let search_result = index::search(db, &query)?;
 	let result_json = serde_json::to_string(&search_result);
 	let result_json = match result_json {