diff --git a/protocol/connections/engine.go b/protocol/connections/engine.go
index 2e58c62..04189ae 100644
--- a/protocol/connections/engine.go
+++ b/protocol/connections/engine.go
@@ -125,6 +125,10 @@ func (e *engine) eventHandler() {
 			if connection != nil && err == nil {
 				connection.Close()
 			}
+			// Explicitly send a disconnected event (if we don't do this here then the UI can wait for a while before
+			// an ongoing Open() connection fails and so the user will see a blocked peer as still connecting (because
+			// there isn't an active connection and we are stuck waiting for tor to time out)
+			e.peerDisconnected(ev.Data[event.RemotePeer])
 		case event.ProtocolEngineStartListen:
 			go e.listenFn()
 		default: