diff --git a/src/sim/init_signals.cc b/src/sim/init_signals.cc
index b9aa6f6e4d..b574f12ea1 100644
--- a/src/sim/init_signals.cc
+++ b/src/sim/init_signals.cc
@@ -84,7 +84,8 @@ setupAltStack()
 
 static void
 installSignalHandler(int signal, void (*handler)(int sigtype),
-                     int flags = SA_RESTART)
+                     int flags = SA_RESTART,
+                     struct sigaction *old_sa = NULL)
 {
     struct sigaction sa;
 
@@ -93,7 +94,7 @@ installSignalHandler(int signal, void (*handler)(int sigtype),
     sa.sa_handler = handler;
     sa.sa_flags = flags;
 
-    if (sigaction(signal, &sa, NULL) == -1)
+    if (sigaction(signal, &sa, old_sa) == -1)
         panic("Failed to setup handler for signal %i\n", signal);
 }
 
@@ -196,9 +197,6 @@ initSignals()
     // Dump intermediate stats and reset them
     installSignalHandler(SIGUSR2, dumprstStatsHandler);
 
-    // Exit cleanly on Interrupt (Ctrl-C)
-    installSignalHandler(SIGINT, exitNowHandler);
-
     // Print the current cycle number and a backtrace on abort. Make
     // sure the signal is unmasked and the handler reset when a signal
     // is delivered to be able to invoke the default handler.
@@ -218,4 +216,19 @@ initSignals()
     installSignalHandler(SIGIO, ioHandler);
 }
 
+struct sigaction old_int_sa;
+
+void initSigInt()
+{
+    // Exit cleanly on Interrupt (Ctrl-C)
+    installSignalHandler(SIGINT, exitNowHandler, SA_RESTART, &old_int_sa);
+}
+
+void restoreSigInt()
+{
+    // Restore the old SIGINT handler
+    sigaction(SIGINT, &old_int_sa, NULL);
+}
+
+
 } // namespace gem5
diff --git a/src/sim/init_signals.hh b/src/sim/init_signals.hh
index ea9f3d5229..2da3aae877 100644
--- a/src/sim/init_signals.hh
+++ b/src/sim/init_signals.hh
@@ -38,6 +38,10 @@ void exitNowHandler(int sigtype);
 void abortHandler(int sigtype);
 void initSignals();
 
+// separate out sigint handler so that we can restore the python one
+void initSigInt();
+void restoreSigInt();
+
 } // namespace gem5
 
 #endif // __SIM_INIT_SIGNALS_HH__
diff --git a/src/sim/simulate.cc b/src/sim/simulate.cc
index abd2b1d391..6505f57904 100644
--- a/src/sim/simulate.cc
+++ b/src/sim/simulate.cc
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@
 #include "base/types.hh"
 #include "sim/async.hh"
 #include "sim/eventq.hh"
+#include "sim/init_signals.hh"
 #include "sim/sim_events.hh"
 #include "sim/sim_exit.hh"
 #include "sim/stat_control.hh"
@@ -187,6 +188,10 @@ GlobalSimLoopExitEvent *global_exit_event= nullptr;
 GlobalSimLoopExitEvent *
 simulate(Tick num_cycles)
 {
+    // install the sigint handler to catch ctrl-c and exit the sim loop cleanly
+    // Note: This should be done before initializing the threads
+    initSigInt();
+
     if (global_exit_event)//cleaning last global exit event
         global_exit_event->clean();
     std::unique_ptr<GlobalSyncEvent, DescheduleDeleter> quantum_event;
@@ -229,6 +234,9 @@ simulate(Tick num_cycles)
     Event *local_event = doSimLoop(mainEventQueue[0]);
     assert(local_event);
 
+    // Restore normal ctrl-c operation as soon as the event queue is done
+    restoreSigInt();
+
     inParallelMode = false;
 
     // locate the global exit event and return it to Python