A Giant Aquarium Exploded Inside A Hotel & There Were Fish Absolutely Everywhere (VIDEOS)
It had 1,500 fish inside 😢
The AquaDom aquarium at Berlin's Radisson Blu. Right: The aquarium after it shattered.
One of the world's most impressive aquariums cracked open and dumped massive amounts of water and fish into the lobby of a hotel in Germany, injuring two people and killing many fish in the process.
The AquaDom, a towering blue tank at the heart of Berlin's Radisson Blu hotel, burst early Friday and spilled about 1,500 fish onto the hotel's ground floor, according to local police. Crews tried to save the fish but most of them were not expected to survive.
"In addition to the incredible maritime damage, two people were injured by glass splinters," Berlin Police tweeted.
They added that "massive amounts of water are leaking" out of the hotel and flowing into the street, and that roughly 100 emergency personnel are on the scene.
It's unclear why the tank broke in the first place, but police did not see any reason to believe it was a criminal case.
Visitors posted several photos of the scene and it looks like a total mess, with water, glass, fish and mangled steel everywhere.
\u201cThe tank in our hotel\u2026.blew? #berlin #radisson #hotel #aquarium\u201d— Larissa (@Larissa) 1671172369
The AquaDom is at the heart of the hotel, so it was hard for patrons to miss the catastrophe.
\u201cUnbelievable wake up this morning. The aquarium in the Radisson hotel in Berlin where I have been staying exploded. Photos of the fishtank just 12hrs apart. Hoping no one is hurt.\u201d— Alex Carr (@Alex Carr) 1671172876
One witness video shows emergency crews picking through the debris while water continues to pour into the ruined lobby from a nearby pipe.
\u201cBro what the fuck the fish tank of my hotel just exploded in the middle of the night WHATS GOING ON. #radissonblu #Berlin #aquarium #Explosion\u201d— Niklas Scheele (@Niklas Scheele) 1671166985
The AquaDom held the Guinness World Record for the largest free-standing cylindrical aquarium in the world.
\u201cStaying in the @Radisson Collection in Berlin, where the huge aquarium (part of @SEALIFEAquarium) has shattered and flooded the hotel lobby. Apparently nobody has been hurt, fingers crossed that is true. I was woken up at 4:30 ish by a rumbling beneath us #berlin #sealife\u201d— Chris Woolley (@Chris Woolley) 1671174356
The tank opened in December 2003 and was designed with an elevator and stairs running through the middle of it. Many rooms also include a window that looks out onto the tank.
The structure stood 16 metres (52 feet) high and held about 1 million litres (265,000 gallons) of salt water, BBC News reports.
In other words, that's a lot of glass and water to come crashing down all at once.
Fabian Hellbusch, the property management company that runs the area around the aquarium, declared that it had been "completely destroyed" in a statement.
It added that the reason for the disaster remains unclear and one hotel employee was injured, although it did not mention the second reported injury.
"We are saddened by the accident and wish the injured person all the best."