Thieves Dressed as Knights Rob Festival Cash

A gang of thieves dressed as knights and armed with a sword and an axe robbed the organizers of a medieval festival in northeast France Monday and made off with 20,000 euros ($25,000), police said.

The theft took place in the early hours of Monday as organizers were counting revenues from the festival in Bitche, near France's border with Germany, a spokesman for regional police in Lorraine said.

"According to witnesses, there were three or four individuals, masked and wearing medieval attire," the spokesman said.

They struck one of the organizers with the handle of the axe and escaped with the cash. Police have opened an investigation and interviewed several witnesses, he said.

The "Medievales Europeennes de Bitche" is one of France's largest festivals of medieval culture and last year was attended by more than 11,000 people.