diff --git a/dspace_statistics_api/database.py b/dspace_statistics_api/database.py
index d240757..cb8640e 100644
--- a/dspace_statistics_api/database.py
+++ b/dspace_statistics_api/database.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ from .config import DATABASE_USER
 from .config import DATABASE_PASS
 from .config import DATABASE_HOST
 from .config import DATABASE_PORT
+import falcon
 import psycopg2
 import psycopg2.extras
 
@@ -14,7 +15,13 @@ class DatabaseManager():
         self._connection_uri = 'dbname={} user={} password={} host={} port={}'.format(DATABASE_NAME, DATABASE_USER, DATABASE_PASS, DATABASE_HOST, DATABASE_PORT)
 
     def __enter__(self):
-        self._connection = psycopg2.connect(self._connection_uri, cursor_factory=psycopg2.extras.DictCursor)
+        try:
+            self._connection = psycopg2.connect(self._connection_uri, cursor_factory=psycopg2.extras.DictCursor)
+        except psycopg2.OperationalError:
+            title = '500 Internal Server Error'
+            description = 'Could not connect to database'
+            raise falcon.HTTPInternalServerError(title, description)
+
         return self._connection
 
     def __exit__(self, exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback):