diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/controller/SearchPhaseController.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/controller/SearchPhaseController.java
index 87a36d8d885..49c18697970 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/controller/SearchPhaseController.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/controller/SearchPhaseController.java
@@ -20,7 +20,11 @@
 package org.elasticsearch.search.controller;
 
 import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
-import org.apache.lucene.search.*;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.FieldDoc;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.ScoreDoc;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.ShardFieldDocSortedHitQueue;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.SortField;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.TopFieldDocs;
 import org.apache.lucene.util.PriorityQueue;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.Nullable;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.collect.Iterables;
@@ -256,7 +260,13 @@ public class SearchPhaseController extends AbstractComponent {
 
         boolean sorted = false;
         int sortScoreIndex = -1;
-        QuerySearchResult querySearchResult = Iterables.get(queryResults.values(), 0).queryResult();
+        QuerySearchResult querySearchResult;
+        try {
+            querySearchResult = Iterables.get(queryResults.values(), 0).queryResult();
+        } catch (IndexOutOfBoundsException e) {
+            // no results, return an empty response
+            return InternalSearchResponse.EMPTY;
+        }
 
         if (querySearchResult.topDocs() instanceof TopFieldDocs) {
             sorted = true;
diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/InternalSearchResponse.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/InternalSearchResponse.java
index 040c526749c..aaf476150fb 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/InternalSearchResponse.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/InternalSearchResponse.java
@@ -43,6 +43,8 @@ public class InternalSearchResponse implements Streamable, ToXContent {
 
     private boolean timedOut;
 
+    public static final InternalSearchResponse EMPTY = new InternalSearchResponse(new InternalSearchHits(new InternalSearchHit[0], 0, 0), null, false);
+
     private InternalSearchResponse() {
     }