diff --git a/lib/_http_agent.js b/lib/_http_agent.js
index 28006353a35f34..c936bc16228d33 100644
--- a/lib/_http_agent.js
+++ b/lib/_http_agent.js
@@ -284,9 +284,8 @@ function handleSocketAfterProxy(err, req) {
   if (err.code === 'ERR_PROXY_TUNNEL') {
     if (err.proxyTunnelTimeout) {
       req.emit('timeout');  // Propagate the timeout from the tunnel to the request.
-    } else {
-      req.emit('error', err);
     }
+    req.emit('error', err);
   }
 }
 
diff --git a/lib/_http_client.js b/lib/_http_client.js
index 63640301d6dbdb..ee4f47be64ab3c 100644
--- a/lib/_http_client.js
+++ b/lib/_http_client.js
@@ -958,7 +958,8 @@ function onSocketNT(req, socket, err) {
       if (!req.aborted && !err) {
         err = new ConnResetException('socket hang up');
       }
-      if (err) {
+      // ERR_PROXY_TUNNEL is handled by the proxying logic
+      if (err && err.code !== 'ERR_PROXY_TUNNEL') {
         emitErrorEvent(req, err);
       }
       req._closed = true;
diff --git a/test/client-proxy/test-https-proxy-request-malformed-response.mjs b/test/client-proxy/test-https-proxy-request-malformed-response.mjs
index edaeeda13353e7..0f096d9bec8d9f 100644
--- a/test/client-proxy/test-https-proxy-request-malformed-response.mjs
+++ b/test/client-proxy/test-https-proxy-request-malformed-response.mjs
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ const { code, signal, stderr, stdout } = await runProxiedRequest({
 });
 
 // The proxy client should get an error from failure in establishing the tunnel.
-assert.match(stderr, /ERR_PROXY_TUNNEL.*Failed to establish tunnel to .* NOT-HTTP MALFORMED RESPONSE/);
+assert.strictEqual(stderr.match(/ERR_PROXY_TUNNEL.*Failed to establish tunnel to .* NOT-HTTP MALFORMED RESPONSE*/g).length, 1);
 assert.strictEqual(stdout.trim(), '');
 assert.strictEqual(code, 0);
 assert.strictEqual(signal, null);
diff --git a/test/client-proxy/test-https-proxy-request-proxy-failure-404.mjs b/test/client-proxy/test-https-proxy-request-proxy-failure-404.mjs
index df1dfd8e3b79cd..7b61d81301a3b7 100644
--- a/test/client-proxy/test-https-proxy-request-proxy-failure-404.mjs
+++ b/test/client-proxy/test-https-proxy-request-proxy-failure-404.mjs
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ const { code, signal, stderr, stdout } = await runProxiedRequest({
 });
 
 // The proxy client should get an error from failure in establishing the tunnel.
-assert.match(stderr, /ERR_PROXY_TUNNEL.*Failed to establish tunnel to .* HTTP\/1\.1 404 Not Found/);
+assert.strictEqual(stderr.match(/ERR_PROXY_TUNNEL.*Failed to establish tunnel to .* HTTP\/1\.1 404 Not Found/g).length, 1);
 assert.strictEqual(stdout.trim(), '');
 assert.strictEqual(code, 0);
 assert.strictEqual(signal, null);
diff --git a/test/client-proxy/test-https-proxy-request-proxy-failure-500.mjs b/test/client-proxy/test-https-proxy-request-proxy-failure-500.mjs
index cb5f040533518f..e57c1bb16cb071 100644
--- a/test/client-proxy/test-https-proxy-request-proxy-failure-500.mjs
+++ b/test/client-proxy/test-https-proxy-request-proxy-failure-500.mjs
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ const { code, signal, stderr, stdout } = await runProxiedRequest({
 });
 
 // The proxy client should get an error from failure in establishing the tunnel.
-assert.match(stderr, /ERR_PROXY_TUNNEL.*Failed to establish tunnel to .* HTTP\/1\.1 500 Connection Error/);
+assert.strictEqual(stderr.match(/ERR_PROXY_TUNNEL.*Failed to establish tunnel to .* HTTP\/1\.1 500 Connection Error/g).length, 1);
 assert.strictEqual(stdout.trim(), '');
 assert.strictEqual(code, 0);
 assert.strictEqual(signal, null);
diff --git a/test/client-proxy/test-https-proxy-request-proxy-failure-502.mjs b/test/client-proxy/test-https-proxy-request-proxy-failure-502.mjs
index 4d7f42508877b3..1241c38f593738 100644
--- a/test/client-proxy/test-https-proxy-request-proxy-failure-502.mjs
+++ b/test/client-proxy/test-https-proxy-request-proxy-failure-502.mjs
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ const { code, signal, stderr, stdout } = await runProxiedRequest({
 });
 
 // The proxy client should get an error from failure in establishing the tunnel.
-assert.match(stderr, /ERR_PROXY_TUNNEL.*Failed to establish tunnel to .* HTTP\/1\.1 502 Bad Gateway/);
+assert.strictEqual(stderr.match(/ERR_PROXY_TUNNEL.*Failed to establish tunnel to .* HTTP\/1\.1 502 Bad Gateway/g).length, 1);
 assert.strictEqual(stdout.trim(), '');
 assert.strictEqual(code, 0);
 assert.strictEqual(signal, null);