$re = '/^\s*#([\p{Pc}\p{N}\p{L}\p{Mn}]{1,50})$/um';
$str = '#validhashtag
#valid_hashtag
#validhashtag_with_space_before_or_after
#valid_hashtag_chars_öÖäÄüÜß
ipsum#notvalid //Not valid: Connected to Word
http://google.com/#results //Not valid: Same as above
#not-valid
#not!valid';
$subst = "";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php