diff --git a/inc/parser/handler.php b/inc/parser/handler.php
index 0e54425f7da28b077d218fa207dcf7c52e67a102..24d880e2d2b87a83fea234958e1570397b209a2d 100644
--- a/inc/parser/handler.php
+++ b/inc/parser/handler.php
@@ -1520,7 +1520,8 @@ class Doku_Handler_Block {
 
         if(trim($content)==''){
             //remove the whole paragraph
-            array_splice($this->calls,$i);
+            //array_splice($this->calls,$i); // <- this is much slower than the loop below
+            for($x=$ccount-1; $x>=$i; $x--) unset($this->calls[$x]);
         }else{
             // remove ending linebreaks in the paragraph
             $i=count($this->calls)-1;