diff --git a/koha-tmpl/intranet-tmpl/prog/js/datatables.js b/koha-tmpl/intranet-tmpl/prog/js/datatables.js
index 0e7dadae7c..18357f5b95 100644
--- a/koha-tmpl/intranet-tmpl/prog/js/datatables.js
+++ b/koha-tmpl/intranet-tmpl/prog/js/datatables.js
@@ -583,8 +583,11 @@ jQuery.fn.dataTable.ext.errMode = function(settings, note, message) {
                                     _per_page: length
                                 };
 
-
                                 function build_query(col, value){
+
+                                    // escape SQL special characters
+                                    value = value.replace(/(\%|\_|\\)/g, "\\$1" );
+
                                     var parts = [];
                                     var attributes = col.data.split(':');
                                     for (var i=0;i<attributes.length;i++){