diff --git a/icu4c/source/test/cintltst/custrtst.c b/icu4c/source/test/cintltst/custrtst.c
index f59dfa29b72..d49fb48bb49 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/test/cintltst/custrtst.c
+++ b/icu4c/source/test/cintltst/custrtst.c
@@ -971,11 +971,9 @@ TestSurrogateSearching(void) {
      * Condition: search the same string while the first char is not an
      * surrogate and the last char is the leading surragte.
      */
-    {
-        static const UChar s[]={ 0x0020, 0xD9C1 };
-        if (u_strFindFirst(s, 2, s, 2) != s) {
-            log_err("error: ending with a partial supplementary code point should match\n");
-        }
+    static const UChar s2[]={ 0x0020, 0xD9C1 };
+    if (u_strFindFirst(s2, 2, s2, 2) != s2) {
+        log_err("error: ending with a partial supplementary code point should match\n");
     }
 }