BERLIN (AP) — Berlin police say a 70-year-old shop owner used newspapers to thwart a pair of masked robbers armed with a sword.

Police said the would-be robbers burst into the newspaper shop in the German capital on Wednesday evening, threatening the owner with the sword and demanding that she hand over the contents of the cash register.

They said Thursday that the woman threw newspapers in the face of the assailant carrying the sword and shouted for help. Her 71-year-old husband hurried to the scene from a back room.

One of the assailants sprayed an irritant in the couple's faces, but the robbers then fled without any cash.