diff --git a/nominatim/cli.py b/nominatim/cli.py
index 6c110ce7..c558eb84 100644
--- a/nominatim/cli.py
+++ b/nominatim/cli.py
@@ -11,8 +11,6 @@ from pathlib import Path
 from .config import Configuration
 from .tools.exec_utils import run_legacy_script, run_api_script
 
-from .indexer.indexer import Indexer
-
 def _num_system_cpus():
     try:
         cpus = len(os.sched_getaffinity(0))
@@ -320,6 +318,8 @@ class UpdateIndex:
 
     @staticmethod
     def run(args):
+        from .indexer.indexer import Indexer
+
         indexer = Indexer(args.config.get_libpq_dsn(),
                           args.threads or _num_system_cpus() or 1)
 
diff --git a/test/python/test_cli.py b/test/python/test_cli.py
index 92b42372..9ac62973 100644
--- a/test/python/test_cli.py
+++ b/test/python/test_cli.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import psycopg2
 import pytest
 
 import nominatim.cli
+import nominatim.indexer.indexer
 
 def call_nominatim(*args):
     return nominatim.cli.nominatim(module_dir='build/module',
@@ -87,9 +88,9 @@ def test_index_command(monkeypatch, temp_db, params, do_bnds, do_ranks):
         with conn.cursor() as cur:
             cur.execute("CREATE TABLE import_status (indexed bool)")
     bnd_mock = MockParamCapture()
-    monkeypatch.setattr(nominatim.cli.Indexer, 'index_boundaries', bnd_mock)
+    monkeypatch.setattr(nominatim.indexer.indexer.Indexer, 'index_boundaries', bnd_mock)
     rank_mock = MockParamCapture()
-    monkeypatch.setattr(nominatim.cli.Indexer, 'index_by_rank', rank_mock)
+    monkeypatch.setattr(nominatim.indexer.indexer.Indexer, 'index_by_rank', rank_mock)
 
     assert 0 == call_nominatim('index', *params)