[TYPO3-english] installaion problem

[v s punn]

trying my hands on typo3.
uploaded the compressed file and extracted it.
when I try to install it, I get the following error:
Warning: Unexpected character in input: '\' (ASCII=92) state=1 in /home/solarp/public_html/typo/typo3/index.php on line 23

Warning: Unexpected character in input: '\' (ASCII=92) state=1 in /home/solarp/public_html/typo/typo3/index.php on line 23

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING in /home/solarp/public_html/typo/typo3/index.php on line 23