diff --git a/src/lib_shell/distributed_db.ml b/src/lib_shell/distributed_db.ml
index 29d926470e0b8f2ff039c337316c58117baed8fa..1b04504c30ff8cdd5fb6ad0831dda7269ee84540 100644
--- a/src/lib_shell/distributed_db.ml
+++ b/src/lib_shell/distributed_db.ml
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@
   *)
 
 module Message = Distributed_db_message
+module Distributed_db_event = Distributed_db_event.Distributed_db_event
 
 type p2p = (Message.t, Peer_metadata.t, Connection_metadata.t) P2p.net
 
@@ -123,7 +124,27 @@ let activate
     ({p2p; active_chains; protocol_db; disk; p2p_readers; _} as global_db)
     chain_store callback =
   let run_p2p_reader gid =
-    let register p2p_reader = P2p_peer.Table.add p2p_readers gid p2p_reader in
+    let register p2p_reader =
+      (match P2p_peer.Table.find p2p_readers gid with
+      | None -> ()
+      | Some old_p2p_reader ->
+          Distributed_db_event.(
+            emit__dont_wait__use_with_care multiple_p2p_reader)
+            gid ;
+          (* It is not expected to have exception raised by this function,
+             however to prevent future problems potential exceptions are
+             logged. *)
+          Lwt.dont_wait
+            (fun () -> P2p_reader.shutdown old_p2p_reader)
+            (fun exn ->
+              match exn with
+              | Out_of_memory | Stack_overflow -> raise exn
+              | _ ->
+                  Distributed_db_event.(
+                    emit__dont_wait__use_with_care p2p_reader_shutdown_failed)
+                    (gid, Printexc.to_string exn))) ;
+      P2p_peer.Table.add p2p_readers gid p2p_reader
+    in
     let unregister () = P2p_peer.Table.remove p2p_readers gid in
     P2p_reader.run ~register ~unregister p2p disk protocol_db active_chains gid
   in
diff --git a/src/lib_shell/distributed_db_event.ml b/src/lib_shell/distributed_db_event.ml
index 5574d3d6af80004e7a91e2095506f3ca863555e8..c61051b5f6630399b5378e369eef8e24d19d0d78 100644
--- a/src/lib_shell/distributed_db_event.ml
+++ b/src/lib_shell/distributed_db_event.ml
@@ -22,6 +22,30 @@
 (* DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.                                                 *)
 (*                                                                           *)
 (*****************************************************************************)
+
+module Distributed_db_event = struct
+  include Internal_event.Simple
+
+  let section = ["node"; "distributed_db"]
+
+  let multiple_p2p_reader =
+    declare_1
+      ~section
+      ~name:"multiple_p2p_reader"
+      ~msg:"multiple p2p_reader for {peer}, a connection may be stuck"
+      ~level:Warning
+      ("peer", P2p_peer.Id.encoding)
+
+  let p2p_reader_shutdown_failed =
+    declare_2
+      ~section
+      ~name:"p2p_reader_shutdow_failed"
+      ~msg:"p2p_reader of {peer} failed to shut down with {exn}"
+      ~level:Warning
+      ("peer", P2p_peer.Id.encoding)
+      ("exn", Data_encoding.string)
+end
+
 module Requester_event = struct
   include Internal_event.Simple