diff --git a/tools/swig/CMakeLists.txt b/tools/swig/CMakeLists.txt
index 78111b2c7d..efba346a6b 100644
--- a/tools/swig/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tools/swig/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -70,9 +70,9 @@ endif()
 if(BUILD_SWIG_PYTHON)
   set_property(SOURCE lammps.i PROPERTY SWIG_MODULE_NAME pylammps)
   swig_add_library(pylammps TYPE MODULE LANGUAGE python SOURCES lammps.i)
-  find_package(Python REQUIRED COMPONENTS Development)
-  swig_link_libraries(pylammps PRIVATE lammps Python::Python)
-  configure_file(run_python_example.sh run_python_example.sh COPYONLY)
+  find_package(Python3 REQUIRED COMPONENTS Development Interpreter)
+  swig_link_libraries(pylammps PRIVATE lammps Python3::Python)
+  configure_file(run_python_example.sh.in run_python_example.sh @ONLY)
 endif()
 
 if(BUILD_SWIG_RUBY)
diff --git a/tools/swig/run_python_example.sh b/tools/swig/run_python_example.sh.in
similarity index 98%
rename from tools/swig/run_python_example.sh
rename to tools/swig/run_python_example.sh.in
index 22f9adafa2..3e5e05316a 100755
--- a/tools/swig/run_python_example.sh
+++ b/tools/swig/run_python_example.sh.in
@@ -60,4 +60,4 @@ PYTHONPATH=${PWD}:${PYTHONPATH-${PWD}}
 
 export PYTHONPATH
 
-python example.py
+@Python3_EXECUTABLE@ example.py