diff --git a/blockdev.c b/blockdev.c
index b9b2d10e6b..9937311aac 100644
--- a/blockdev.c
+++ b/blockdev.c
@@ -1180,6 +1180,10 @@ int do_drive_del(Monitor *mon, const QDict *qdict, QObject **ret_data)
      */
     if (bdrv_get_attached_dev(bs)) {
         bdrv_make_anon(bs);
+
+        /* Further I/O must not pause the guest */
+        bdrv_set_on_error(bs, BLOCKDEV_ON_ERROR_REPORT,
+                          BLOCKDEV_ON_ERROR_REPORT);
     } else {
         drive_uninit(drive_get_by_blockdev(bs));
     }
diff --git a/hmp-commands.hx b/hmp-commands.hx
index 9cea4151b9..4f5a3fd7d5 100644
--- a/hmp-commands.hx
+++ b/hmp-commands.hx
@@ -185,6 +185,8 @@ Remove host block device.  The result is that guest generated IO is no longer
 submitted against the host device underlying the disk.  Once a drive has
 been deleted, the QEMU Block layer returns -EIO which results in IO
 errors in the guest for applications that are reading/writing to the device.
+These errors are always reported to the guest, regardless of the drive's error
+actions (drive options rerror, werror).
 ETEXI
 
     {