diff --git a/service/topology_coordinator.cc b/service/topology_coordinator.cc
index bc9627923d..1a5d17df53 100644
--- a/service/topology_coordinator.cc
+++ b/service/topology_coordinator.cc
@@ -842,6 +842,11 @@ class topology_coordinator : public endpoint_lifecycle_subscriber {
             rtlogger.trace("do update {} reason {}", updates, reason);
             mixed_change change{std::move(updates)};
             group0_command g0_cmd = _group0.client().prepare_command(std::move(change), guard, reason);
+            co_await utils::get_local_injector().inject("wait-before-committing-rf-change-event", [] (auto& handler) -> future<> {
+                rtlogger.info("wait-before-committing-rf-change-event injection hit");
+                co_await handler.wait_for_message(std::chrono::steady_clock::now() + std::chrono::seconds{30});
+                rtlogger.info("wait-before-committing-rf-change-event injection done");
+            });
             co_await _group0.client().add_entry(std::move(g0_cmd), std::move(guard), _as);
         }
         break;
diff --git a/test/topology_custom/test_tablets_cql.py b/test/topology_custom/test_tablets_cql.py
index 298cf03b5b..044b6a9991 100644
--- a/test/topology_custom/test_tablets_cql.py
+++ b/test/topology_custom/test_tablets_cql.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ from cassandra.protocol import InvalidRequest
 from test.pylib.manager_client import ManagerClient
 from test.pylib.rest_client import inject_error_one_shot
 from test.topology.conftest import skip_mode
+from test.topology.util import disable_schema_agreement_wait
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
@@ -66,3 +67,65 @@ async def test_alter_dropped_tablets_keyspace(manager: ManagerClient) -> None:
 
     with pytest.raises(InvalidRequest, match="Can't ALTER keyspace ks, keyspace doesn't exist") as e:
         await task
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+@skip_mode('release', 'error injections are not supported in release mode')
+async def test_alter_tablets_keyspace_concurrent_modification(manager: ManagerClient) -> None:
+    config = {
+        'enable_tablets': 'true'
+    }
+
+    logger.info("starting a node (the leader)")
+    servers = [await manager.server_add(config=config)]
+
+    logger.info("starting a second node (the follower)")
+    servers += [await manager.server_add(config=config)]
+
+    await manager.get_cql().run_async("create keyspace ks with "
+                                      "replication = {'class': 'NetworkTopologyStrategy', 'replication_factor': 1} and "
+                                      "tablets = {'initial': 2}")
+    await manager.get_cql().run_async("create table ks.t (pk int primary key)")
+
+    logger.info(f"injecting wait-before-committing-rf-change-event into the leader node {servers[0]}")
+    injection_handler = await inject_error_one_shot(manager.api, servers[0].ip_addr,
+                                                    'wait-before-committing-rf-change-event')
+
+    # ALTER tablets KS only accepts a specific DC, it rejects the generic 'replication_factor' tag
+    res = await manager.get_cql().run_async("select data_center from system.local")
+    this_dc = res[0].data_center
+
+    async def alter_tablets_ks_without_waiting_to_complete():
+        logger.info("scheduling ALTER KS to change the RF from 1 to 2")
+        await manager.get_cql().run_async("alter keyspace ks "
+                                          f"with replication = {{'class': 'NetworkTopologyStrategy', '{this_dc}': 2}}")
+
+    # by creating a task this way we ensure it's immediately executed,
+    # but we don't want to wait until the task is completed here,
+    # because we want to do something else in the meantime
+    task = asyncio.create_task(alter_tablets_ks_without_waiting_to_complete())
+
+    logger.info(f"waiting for the leader node {servers[0]} to start handling the keyspace-rf-change request")
+    leader_log_file = await manager.server_open_log(servers[0].server_id)
+    await leader_log_file.wait_for("wait-before-committing-rf-change-event injection hit", timeout=10)
+
+    logger.info(f"creating another keyspace from the follower node {servers[1]} so that the leader, which hangs on injected sleep, "
+                f"wakes up with a changed schema")
+    host = manager.get_cql().cluster.metadata.get_host(servers[1].ip_addr)
+    with disable_schema_agreement_wait(manager.get_cql()):
+        await manager.get_cql().run_async("create keyspace ks2 with "
+                                          "replication = {'class': 'NetworkTopologyStrategy', 'replication_factor': 1} "
+                                          "and tablets = {'enabled': true}", host=host)
+
+    logger.info("waking up the leader to continue processing ALTER on a changed schema, which should cause a retry")
+    await injection_handler.message()
+
+    logger.info("waiting for ALTER to complete")
+    await task
+
+    # ensure that the concurrent modification error really did take place
+    matches = await leader_log_file.grep("topology change coordinator fiber got group0_concurrent_modification")
+    assert matches
+
+    # ensure that the ALTER has eventually succeeded and we changed RF from 1 to 2
+    res = manager.get_cql().execute(f"SELECT * FROM system_schema.keyspaces WHERE keyspace_name = 'ks'")
+    assert res[0].replication[this_dc] == '2'