diff --git a/src/Composer/Autoload/AutoloadGenerator.php b/src/Composer/Autoload/AutoloadGenerator.php
index e57e26920..f46da6589 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Autoload/AutoloadGenerator.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Autoload/AutoloadGenerator.php
@@ -888,8 +888,21 @@ PLATFORM_CHECK;
 // autoload.php @generated by Composer
 
 if (PHP_VERSION_ID < 50600) {
-    echo 'Composer 2.3.0 dropped support for autoloading on PHP <5.6 and you are running '.PHP_VERSION.', please upgrade PHP or use Composer 2.2 LTS via "composer self-update --2.2". Aborting.'.PHP_EOL;
-    exit(1);
+    if (!headers_sent()) {
+        header('HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error');
+    }
+    \$err = 'Composer 2.3.0 dropped support for autoloading on PHP <5.6 and you are running '.PHP_VERSION.', please upgrade PHP or use Composer 2.2 LTS via "composer self-update --2.2". Aborting.'.PHP_EOL;
+    if (!ini_get('display_errors')) {
+        if (PHP_SAPI === 'cli' || PHP_SAPI === 'phpdbg') {
+            fwrite(STDERR, \$err);
+        } elseif (!headers_sent()) {
+            echo \$err;
+        }
+    }
+    trigger_error(
+        \$err,
+        E_USER_ERROR
+    );
 }
 
 require_once $vendorPathToTargetDirCode;