diff --git a/MagickWand/compare.c b/MagickWand/compare.c
index 5d546b9c05..8fb70dbb50 100644
--- a/MagickWand/compare.c
+++ b/MagickWand/compare.c
@@ -1166,7 +1166,6 @@ WandExport MagickBooleanType CompareImagesCommand(ImageInfo *image_info,
   reconstruct_image=GetImageFromList(image,1);
   offset.x=0;
   offset.y=0;
-  similarity_metric=0;
   if (subimage_search != MagickFalse)
     {
       similarity_image=SimilarityImage(image,reconstruct_image,metric,