diff --git a/pulsar-io/kafka/pom.xml b/pulsar-io/kafka/pom.xml
index 608a3c21591a8..28971ac282af1 100644
--- a/pulsar-io/kafka/pom.xml
+++ b/pulsar-io/kafka/pom.xml
@@ -109,6 +109,12 @@
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
 
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.awaitility</groupId>
+      <artifactId>awaitility</artifactId>
+      <scope>test</scope>
+    </dependency>
+
   </dependencies>
 
   <build>
diff --git a/pulsar-io/kafka/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/io/kafka/KafkaAbstractSource.java b/pulsar-io/kafka/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/io/kafka/KafkaAbstractSource.java
index 8d2cbd8e74e14..012e4143744e8 100644
--- a/pulsar-io/kafka/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/io/kafka/KafkaAbstractSource.java
+++ b/pulsar-io/kafka/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/io/kafka/KafkaAbstractSource.java
@@ -190,12 +190,14 @@ public void start() {
         });
         runnerThread.setUncaughtExceptionHandler(
                 (t, e) -> {
-                    LOG.error("[{}] Error while consuming records", t.getName(), e);
-                    try {
-                        this.close();
-                    } catch (InterruptedException ex) {
-                        // The interrupted exception is thrown by the runnerThread itself. Ignore it.
-                    }
+                    new Thread(() -> {
+                        LOG.error("[{}] Error while consuming records", t.getName(), e);
+                        try {
+                            this.close();
+                        } catch (Exception ex) {
+                            LOG.error("[{}] Close kafka source error", t.getName(), e);
+                        }
+                    }, "Kafka Source Close Task Thread").start();
                 });
         runnerThread.setName("Kafka Source Thread");
         runnerThread.start();
diff --git a/pulsar-io/kafka/src/test/java/org/apache/pulsar/io/kafka/source/KafkaAbstractSourceTest.java b/pulsar-io/kafka/src/test/java/org/apache/pulsar/io/kafka/source/KafkaAbstractSourceTest.java
index bc06c3e1935b4..402727f4ec015 100644
--- a/pulsar-io/kafka/src/test/java/org/apache/pulsar/io/kafka/source/KafkaAbstractSourceTest.java
+++ b/pulsar-io/kafka/src/test/java/org/apache/pulsar/io/kafka/source/KafkaAbstractSourceTest.java
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
 import org.apache.pulsar.io.core.SourceContext;
 import org.apache.pulsar.io.kafka.KafkaAbstractSource;
 import org.apache.pulsar.io.kafka.KafkaSourceConfig;
+import org.awaitility.Awaitility;
 import org.mockito.Mockito;
 import org.testng.Assert;
 import org.testng.annotations.Test;
@@ -173,7 +174,10 @@ public final void closeConnectorWhenUnexpectedExceptionThrownTest() throws Excep
         Field runningField = KafkaAbstractSource.class.getDeclaredField("running");
         runningField.setAccessible(true);
 
-        Assert.assertFalse((boolean) runningField.get(source));
+        Awaitility.await().untilAsserted(() -> {
+            Assert.assertFalse((boolean) runningField.get(source));
+            Assert.assertNull(consumerField.get(source));
+        });
     }
 
     private File getFile(String name) {