diff --git a/lib/maruku/input/parse_block.rb b/lib/maruku/input/parse_block.rb
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/lib/maruku/input/parse_block.rb
+++ b/lib/maruku/input/parse_block.rb
@@ -603,7 +603,7 @@ module MaRuKu; module In; module Markdown; module BlockLevelParser
           # empty cells increase the colspan of the previous cell
           found = false
           colspan +=  1
-          al = currElem.al || AttributeList.new
+          al = (currElem &&currElem.al) || AttributeList.new
           if (al.size>0)
              elem = find_colspan(al) 
              if (elem != nil)
Corrected a possible  crash during processing a table with a blank first column.