I tried it with replacing 'M' with 'M' and it worked. No need to worry about exotic characters.

use 5.014;

say 'iiiiiiiiMMMMMMMMMMMooooooooooooMMMMMMMMMMiiiiiMMMMMMMMoooo' 
      =~ tr/M/M/sr=~tr/M//;   # => prints: 3

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In reply to Re^4: Can you write a faster code to perform this task? by Lotus1
in thread Can you write a faster code to perform this task? by Anonymous Monk

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