Exuberant Ctags

If i put the following text in example.sql, and run
ctags example.sql, i get an endless hang.

The text is these five characters:

'\'/*'

These don't look like valid sql, but i narrowed this
down from a real SQL file that was causing problems.
The SQL file contained a set of comments on various tables.

If I add characters to the start so that there are an
even number of \' pairs, then there is no hang. With
an odd number, there is a hang.

So, this does not cause a hang.

'\'\'/*'

But this hangs.

'\'\'\'/*'


If I rename the file to example.py, there is no hang.