A giant aquarium, about fifteen meters high, located in the courtyard of a hotel in Berlin, broke this Friday, spilling one million liters of water and 1,500 fish. At least two people were injured, police and firefighters reported.
Berlin police spokesman Martin Stralau said emergency services were called to Lisbon at 6 a.m., 5 p.m.
“The aquarium is damaged, water is leaking. The situation is still unclear at this point,” according to Berlin firefighters.
The German capital’s traffic information agency, VIZ, said there was a lot of water on the street.
Two people were injured in the incident, hit by shrapnel and taken to hospital.
For reasons yet to be determined, the glass walls shattered at around 5:50 a.m. local time (4:50 a.m. GMT).
Located in the lobby of the Radisson Blu Hotel, the cylindrical aquarium contained one million liters of water and around 1,500 tropical fish.
“Water and fish spread to the ground floor” and the hotel was evacuated, a fire department spokesman told AFP.
About 100 relief workers were at the scene. Police used dogs to find victims under the rubble.
Police partially closed Karl-Liebknecht Street, a major thoroughfare in central Berlin, due to “excessive amounts of water on the road”.
Photos and videos circulating on social media, apparently sent by hotel guests, show the aquarium partially destroyed, with large pieces of glass strewn about and water still gushing.
“We heard a crack that woke us up,” a witness told Bild newspaper. “My wife said that something had flown in front of the window. I went to look and the day before (…) the aquarium there collapsed”.
oh Sun is Aquarius, located in the busy tourist area of Mitte district, has the largest cylindrical aquarium, 14 meters high and holding 1,500 fish, according to the website. A glass lift was installed to allow visitors to see the marine life from the inside.
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