BERLIN (Reuters) – An aquarium in Berlin that was home to about 1,500 exotic fish exploded early on Friday, spilling 1 million liters (264,172 gallons) of water and debris onto a main road in the busy Mitte district, emergency services said. .
About 100 emergency responders rushed to the site, an entertainment complex that also houses a Radisson hotel and museum as well as an aquarium.
Sea Life Berlin has offered a glass elevator ride through the Aquadom, which it says is the largest free-standing cylindrical aquarium in the world at 14 meters (46 feet) high.
Two people were injured by glass shards, and police evacuated the hotel complex, fearing structural damage.
“Just a mess. The whole fish tank exploded and what’s left is complete devastation. Lots of dead fish and rubble,” Sandra Weezer, a hotel attendant, told Reuters.
The Berlin Fire Brigade said on Twitter that search and rescue dogs prowled the ground floor of the building, which was so littered with debris that responders could not reach, but no injuries were found.
A spokesman for the fire brigade told Reuters it was still not clear what caused the Aqua Dome explosion.
[1/7] Emergency services work on a street outside a hotel after the AquaDom aquarium in central Berlin near Alexanderplatz exploded and leaked, with water pouring into the street, in Berlin, Germany, on December 16, 2022. REUTERS/Michel Tantussi
“Unbelievable” damage
Sea Life said on its website that it will remain closed on Friday due to the incident. The company did not immediately respond to requests from Reuters for comment.
Neither firefighters nor police have commented on the fate of the fish, although police said on Twitter that there was “incredible marine damage”.
About 350 people who were staying at the hotel in the complex were told to pack up and leave the building, a firefighter spokesman said.
Buses were sent out to provide shelter for people leaving the hotel as outside temperatures in Berlin hovered around -7 degrees Celsius (19.4 degrees Fahrenheit), police said.
Emergency services closed a main road next to the complex that leads from Alexanderplatz towards the Brandenburg Gate because of the large amount of water that flooded the building.
The aquarium was last renovated in 2020, according to the DomAquaree complex’s website. During the development work, all the water was drained from the tank and the fish were moved to the aquariums in the basement of the building, where there is a facility to take care of the fish breeding.
Writing by Rachael Moore and Maria Sheehan, Editing by Kirsty Knoll, Emilia Sithole Matares and Gareth Jones
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