Berlin Aquarium with 1,500 Exotic Fish Inside Explodes; Video Shows Scary Aftermath

A massive 46-foot aquarium housing roughly 1,500 exotic fish in Berlin, Germany, suddenly exploded, resulting in the injury of two people and sending water and debris flooding onto a nearby street.

The AquaDom aquarium was located in the foyer of a Radisson Collection hotel that was found in the DomAquaree business and leisure complex. On Twitter, Berlin police said that in addition to the unbelievable maritime damage, glass splinters injured two people in the area during the incident.

Massive Aquarium Explodes

The tweet added that 100 firefighters from the city were deployed to the scene to respond to the explosion of the aquarium. Officials also said that the situation at the moment was unclear with the aquarium being damaged causing water to leak.

In a Twitter post, Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey said that around 1 million liters of water leaked from the AquaDom. In a statement, fire department spokesman Adrian Wentzel said that the incident occurred at around 5:50 a.m. local time.

The spokesman added that glass and other debris were swept out of the hotel and into the nearby street. Also, emergency services were forced to shut down a major road that was next to the building after large amounts of water flooded out, as per CNN.

Video footage that was shared by hotel guests on social media platforms on Friday showed the extensive damage to the giant structure. One guest said that the incident caused chaos, with the explosion of the aquarium leaving total devastation, dead fish, and debris.

In a statement on its website, Radisson Hotels said that guests would be relocated and noted that the hotel was closed until further notice. The DomAquaree complex website also noted that AquaDom was the world's largest freestanding cylindrical aquarium, containing a clear-walled elevator for visitors.

Rescuing Surviving Fish

According to BBC, a spokesman for Berlin's fire brigade said during an interview that the vast majority of the fish that were housed inside the aquarium had died. Furthermore, the cold weather made rescue attempts even more difficult. The aquarium was known to have contained more than 100 different species of fish.

During a later interview, fire brigade official James Klein said that they found dozens of fish that were still alive in places where residual water was collected. Klein added that the surviving fish will be relocated to other aquariums.

Officials also said that they were working to rescue another 400 to 500 fish that were in smaller tanks under the hotel lobby that were deprived of oxygen due to the explosion. A pile of debris was collected outside the Radisson Blu, in front of what were previously the front doors.

Giffey said that despite the unexpected and saddening incident, the situation was still relatively lucky because there was no terrible human damage. Such a tragedy would have been caused if the burst happened just an hour later when there were more people who would have been up and walking about in the area of the aquarium, either going about their daily lives or watching the fish in the massive tank, DW News reported.

Tags

Berlin, Aquarium, Germany