diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index 04529801..6e14df9d 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 - [pull #568] Add `prepend` arg to toc extra (#397)
 - [pull #569] Process HTML comments as markdown in 'escape' safe mode
 - [pull #570] Fix syntax warnings in test suite
+- [pull #572] Process inline tags as HTML blocks when they span multiple lines (#571)
 
 
 ## python-markdown2 2.4.13
diff --git a/lib/markdown2.py b/lib/markdown2.py
index fdc01309..380b36d3 100755
--- a/lib/markdown2.py
+++ b/lib/markdown2.py
@@ -833,6 +833,11 @@ def _detab(self, text):
     _block_tags_b = 'p|div|h[1-6]|blockquote|pre|table|dl|ol|ul|script|noscript|form|fieldset|iframe|math'
     _block_tags_b += _html5tags
 
+    _span_tags = (
+        'a|abbr|acronym|b|bdo|big|br|button|cite|code|dfn|em|i|img|input|kbd|label|map|object|output|q'
+        '|samp|script|select|small|span|strong|sub|sup|textarea|time|tt|var'
+    )
+
     _liberal_tag_block_re = re.compile(r"""
         (                       # save in \1
             ^                   # start of line  (with re.M)
@@ -927,6 +932,14 @@ def _hash_html_blocks(self, text, raw=False):
         # Now match more liberally, simply from `\n<tag>` to `</tag>\n`
         text = self._liberal_tag_block_re.sub(hash_html_block_sub, text)
 
+        # now do the same for spans that are acting like blocks
+        # eg: an anchor split over multiple lines for readability
+        text = self._strict_tag_block_sub(
+            text, self._span_tags,
+            # inline elements can't contain block level elements, so only span gamut is required
+            lambda t: hash_html_block_sub(self._run_span_gamut(t))
+        )
+
         # Special case just for <hr />. It was easier to make a special
         # case than to make the other regex more complicated.
         if "<hr" in text:
diff --git a/test/tm-cases/block_like_spans.html b/test/tm-cases/block_like_spans.html
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..81f668e6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/tm-cases/block_like_spans.html
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+<a href="www.google.com">
+
+<img src="image.jpg" width="300px" height="auto" alt="Sample image"/>
+
+Some <strong>markdown</strong> text as well, but <em>no</em> block level elements, since we're still <a href="https://google.com">inside a span</a>
+
+</a>
diff --git a/test/tm-cases/block_like_spans.text b/test/tm-cases/block_like_spans.text
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c715406f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/tm-cases/block_like_spans.text
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+<a href="www.google.com">
+
+<img src="image.jpg" width="300px" height="auto" alt="Sample image"/>
+
+Some **markdown** text as well, but _no_ block level elements, since we're still [inside a span](https://google.com)
+
+</a>