diff --git a/src/Readability.php b/src/Readability.php
index e5f661a..f586909 100644
--- a/src/Readability.php
+++ b/src/Readability.php
@@ -1003,7 +1003,11 @@ class Readability implements LoggerAwareInterface
                     }
 
                     if ($this->hasSingleTagInsideElement($node, 'p') && $this->getLinkDensity($node) < 0.25) {
-                        $newNode = $node->childNodes->item(0);
+                        // In some cases when tidy is disabled the first item may not be a DOMElement so we apply a filter
+                        $newNode = array_values(array_filter(
+                            iterator_to_array($node->childNodes),
+                            static fn ($childNode) => $childNode instanceof \DOMElement
+                        ))[0];
                         $node->parentNode->replaceChild($newNode, $node);
                         $nodesToScore[] = $newNode;
                     }
diff --git a/tests/ReadabilityTest.php b/tests/ReadabilityTest.php
index e0844a1..cdaa69e 100644
--- a/tests/ReadabilityTest.php
+++ b/tests/ReadabilityTest.php
@@ -507,6 +507,19 @@ class ReadabilityTest extends \PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase
         $this->assertSame($expected, $method->invoke($readability, $node, $tag));
     }
 
+    public function testDivToPElementWithComment(): void
+    {
+        $text = str_repeat('Padded real article text to reach decent length for content scoring threshold here. ', 8);
+        $html = '<div><!-- comment --><code>some code snippet</code> ' . $text . '</div>';
+
+        $readability = $this->getReadability($html, 'http://0.0.0.0', 'libxml', false);
+        $res = $readability->init();
+
+        $this->assertTrue($res);
+        $this->assertStringContainsString('some code snippet', $readability->getContent()->getInnerHtml());
+        $this->assertStringContainsString('Padded real article text', $readability->getContent()->getInnerHtml());
+    }
+
     public function testKeepFootnotes(): void
     {
         // from https://www.schreibdichte.de/blog/feed-aggregator-und-spaeter-lesen-dienst-im-team