Visitors and staff at the Radisson Collection hotel in Berlin were awakened by a huge bang in the early hours of Friday morning. The world’s largest round aquarium “AquaDom” exploded and huge amounts of water and fish were washed into the hotel lobby and out into the street, at about six o’clock.
“Giant shock in Berlin: Mega aquarium in Dom Aquaree has apparently exploded!” writes the tabloid Bild.
The hotel is well-known precisely because of the 15-meter high aquarium that has been in the hotel near Alexanderplatz for about 20 years. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the cylinder-shaped tank contained one million liters (!) of water and thousands of fish of over 50 different tropical species.
– Water is still flowing in all directions and out into the street, a fire brigade spokesman told the newspaper Tagesspiegel several hours later, at 8 o’clock.
It is not yet known how the fishermen have fared, however it is clear that several people must have been injured by shards of glass in connection with the explosion. There is an extensive effort at the scene with large forces from the fire brigade and the police.
According to Bild’s sources, material exhaustion is suspected to be behind the incident.
Hear more about the event in the player above.