Massive Berlin Aquarium With 1,500 Fish Bursts In Hotel

Topline

At least two people were injured when a massive aquarium inside a hotel in Berlin burst, according to local police, as roughly 1,500 tropical fish and “massive amounts of water” spilled out of a 264,000-gallon tank, leaking onto the street and heavily damaging the lobby.

Berlin’s AquaDom aquarium burst Friday morning, sending 1,500 tropical fish onto the hotel lobby … [+] where the 50-foot-tall tank stood.

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Key Facts

Local police said roughly 100 emergency response officers responded to the scene, where two people were injured by shards that fell off glass the 50-foot-tall cylindrical tank inside the lobby of the Radisson Collection Hotel in the center of Berlin.

Speaking to reporters, Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey said the break took place at 5:45 a.m. local time, and that the hotel was lucky to avoid “terrible human damage.”

None of the 1,500 fish were saved, Giffey said, although officials are working to save several hundred smaller fish that had been kept in separate aquariums below the hotel lobby.

Photos and videos on social media showed shards of glass strewn throughout the lobby, where furniture and windows were destroyed.

Hotel guests told Reuters the burst left “total devastation.”

All 400 people who had been staying at the hotel have been evacuated and are awaiting transport to other hotels in the city, German outlet DW News reported—the temperature in Berlin this morning was below 20 degrees Fahrenheit.

The hotel has been closed until further notice, a hotel spokesperson told EuroNews.

Key Background

The aquarium, called AquaDom, was known as the world’s biggest cylindrical fish tank, housing more than 1,500 tropical fish and more than 100 unique species. In a statement, Sea Life Berlin, which operates the aquarium, said it was “shocked” and looking into what caused the incident.

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