diff --git a/gcc/cp/decl.cc b/gcc/cp/decl.cc
index 7f80f9d4d7a5d352828c3b1b6e974a593aa74dc1..de41b4de5ede41158e2f946c481b09a5eeb000e5 100644
--- a/gcc/cp/decl.cc
+++ b/gcc/cp/decl.cc
@@ -5483,13 +5483,15 @@ start_decl (const cp_declarator *declarator,
 
   *pushed_scope_p = NULL_TREE;
 
-  attributes = chainon (attributes, prefix_attributes);
+  if (prefix_attributes != error_mark_node)
+    attributes = chainon (attributes, prefix_attributes);
 
   decl = grokdeclarator (declarator, declspecs, NORMAL, initialized,
 			 &attributes);
 
   if (decl == NULL_TREE || VOID_TYPE_P (decl)
-      || decl == error_mark_node)
+      || decl == error_mark_node
+      || prefix_attributes == error_mark_node)
     return error_mark_node;
 
   context = CP_DECL_CONTEXT (decl);
diff --git a/gcc/testsuite/g++.dg/cpp0x/pr96440.C b/gcc/testsuite/g++.dg/cpp0x/pr96440.C
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..000caf3197dbac2fd64ac60cc0020f888f387cdc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gcc/testsuite/g++.dg/cpp0x/pr96440.C
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+/* { dg-do compile } */
+/* { dg-excess-errors "" } */
+
+auto alignas a [[]] [[const]] ();