diff --git a/pymysqlreplication/event.py b/pymysqlreplication/event.py
index 51c84fa0..4c94b0f0 100644
--- a/pymysqlreplication/event.py
+++ b/pymysqlreplication/event.py
@@ -486,8 +486,9 @@ def __init__(self,
         self.packet.advance(1)
 
         #string[EOF]    query
-        self.query: str = self.packet.read(event_size - 13 - self.status_vars_length
-                                           - self.schema_length - 1).decode("utf-8")
+        query = self.packet.read(event_size - 13 - self.status_vars_length
+                                 - self.schema_length - 1)
+        self.query:str = query.decode("utf-8", errors='backslashreplace')
 
     def _dump(self) -> None:
         """Dump the python objects for the event."""