diff --git a/src/moin/converters/_tests/test_markdown_in.py b/src/moin/converters/_tests/test_markdown_in.py
index 92b04c474..033b20d87 100644
--- a/src/moin/converters/_tests/test_markdown_in.py
+++ b/src/moin/converters/_tests/test_markdown_in.py
@@ -182,6 +182,17 @@ def test_wikilinks(self, input, output):
     def test_admonition(self, input, output):
         self.do(input, output)
 
+    data = [
+        ("one < two", "<p>one &lt; two</p>"),
+        ("[[one]] < two", '<p><a xlink:href="wiki.local:one">one</a> &lt; two</p>'),
+        ("pre <strong>bold</strong> post", "<div><p>pre <strong>bold</strong> post</p></div>"),
+    ]
+
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize("input,output", data)
+    def test_embedded_markup(self, input, output):
+        """Test embedded markup in markdown"""
+        self.do(input, output)
+
     def serialize_strip(self, elem, **options):
         result = serialize(elem, namespaces=self.namespaces, **options)
         return self.output_re.sub("", result)
diff --git a/src/moin/converters/markdown_in.py b/src/moin/converters/markdown_in.py
index 7691c7c05..e2576d23c 100644
--- a/src/moin/converters/markdown_in.py
+++ b/src/moin/converters/markdown_in.py
@@ -531,7 +531,8 @@ def convert_embedded_markup(self, node):
         """
         for idx, child in enumerate(node):
             if isinstance(child, str):
-                if "<" in child:
+                # search for HTML tags
+                if re.search("<[^ ].*?>", child):
                     node[idx] = self.embedded_markup(child)  # child is immutable string, so must do node[idx]
             else:
                 # do not convert markup within a <pre> tag