diff --git a/scrapy/shell.py b/scrapy/shell.py
index 80b625633..af91d6ce0 100644
--- a/scrapy/shell.py
+++ b/scrapy/shell.py
@@ -164,7 +164,11 @@ class Shell(object):
 
 def inspect_response(response, spider):
     """Open a shell to inspect the given response"""
+    # Shell.start removes the SIGINT handler, so save it and re-add it after
+    # the shell has closed
+    sigint_handler = signal.getsignal(signal.SIGINT)
     Shell(spider.crawler).start(response=response, spider=spider)
+    signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, sigint_handler)
 
 
 def _request_deferred(request):