diff --git a/biopet-tools/src/main/scala/nl/lumc/sasc/biopet/tools/ExtractAlignedFastq.scala b/biopet-tools/src/main/scala/nl/lumc/sasc/biopet/tools/ExtractAlignedFastq.scala
index 6d655c5eacb70208211c97ea2c5b12d0e0be4eb8..05c274925e074f50bbd1b80dd9d6f06acbd5311b 100644
--- a/biopet-tools/src/main/scala/nl/lumc/sasc/biopet/tools/ExtractAlignedFastq.scala
+++ b/biopet-tools/src/main/scala/nl/lumc/sasc/biopet/tools/ExtractAlignedFastq.scala
@@ -63,7 +63,9 @@ object ExtractAlignedFastq extends ToolCommand {
     def intFromCoord(s: String): Int = s.replaceAll(",", "").replaceAll("\\.", "").toInt
 
     inStrings.map {
-      case ptn1(chr, start, end) if intFromCoord(end) > intFromCoord(start)  => new Interval(chr, intFromCoord(start), intFromCoord(end))
+      case ptn1(chr, start, end) if intFromCoord(end) >= intFromCoord(start)  => new Interval(chr, intFromCoord(start), intFromCoord(end))
+      case ptn1(chr, start, end) if intFromCoord(end) < intFromCoord(start)  =>
+        throw new IllegalStateException(s"end is higher then start: $chr:$start-$end")
       case ptn2(chr, start) =>
         val startCoord = intFromCoord(start)
         new Interval(chr, startCoord, startCoord)