diff --git a/DDCore/src/DetectorLoad.cpp b/DDCore/src/DetectorLoad.cpp
index cf464a4dd..35385f9b4 100644
--- a/DDCore/src/DetectorLoad.cpp
+++ b/DDCore/src/DetectorLoad.cpp
@@ -20,6 +20,9 @@
 #include <XML/DocumentHandler.h>
 
 // C/C++ include files
+#include <csignal>
+#include <cstdlib>
+#include <iostream>
 #include <stdexcept>
 
 #ifndef __TIXML__
@@ -127,6 +130,19 @@ void DetectorLoad::processXMLString(const char* xmldata, xml::UriReader* entity_
 
 /// Process a given DOM (sub-) tree
 void DetectorLoad::processXMLElement(const std::string& xmlfile, const xml::Handle_t& xml_root) {
+
+  // Install signal handler for SIGINT (Ctrl-C)
+  struct sigaction sigIntHandler;
+
+  sigIntHandler.sa_handler = [](int) {
+    std::cerr << "Caught signal SIGINT, exiting..." << std::endl;
+    exit(1);
+  };
+  sigemptyset(&sigIntHandler.sa_mask);
+  sigIntHandler.sa_flags = 0;
+
+  sigaction(SIGINT, &sigIntHandler, NULL);
+
   if ( xml_root.ptr() )   {
     std::string tag = xml_root.tag();
     std::string type = tag + "_XML_reader";
@@ -151,6 +167,19 @@ void DetectorLoad::processXMLElement(const std::string& xmlfile, const xml::Hand
 
 /// Process a given DOM (sub-) tree
 void DetectorLoad::processXMLElement(const xml::Handle_t& xml_root, DetectorBuildType /* type */) {
+
+  // Install signal handler for SIGINT (Ctrl-C)
+  struct sigaction sigIntHandler;
+
+  sigIntHandler.sa_handler = [](int) {
+    std::cerr << "Caught signal SIGINT, exiting..." << std::endl;
+    exit(1);
+  };
+  sigemptyset(&sigIntHandler.sa_mask);
+  sigIntHandler.sa_flags = 0;
+
+  sigaction(SIGINT, &sigIntHandler, NULL);
+
   if ( xml_root.ptr() )   {
     std::string tag = xml_root.tag();
     std::string type = tag + "_XML_reader";