BERLIN (Reuters) – A Berlin aquarium that housed around 1,500 exotic fish exploded early on Friday at a leisure complex, spilling a million liters of water and debris onto a thoroughfare in the bustling Mitte district, officials said emergency.
“In addition to the enormous marine damage… two people were injured by shards of glass,” Berlin police said on Twitter.
A Berlin Fire Department spokesman said emergency responders were unable to access the ground floor of the building due to debris. Search and rescue dogs have been sent to the scene, he added.
The spokesman said the cause of the aquarium explosion was still unknown. Neither firefighters nor police have commented on the fate of the fish.
It was the largest free-standing cylindrical aquarium in the world, standing 14 meters tall, according to the website of the DomAquaree center, which houses a Radisson hotel, museum, shops and restaurants.
Emergency services closed a main road near the center leading from Alexanderplatz to the Brandenburg Gate, due to the large volume of water that flowed from the building.
The road and sidewalks outside the center were littered with debris.
About 350 people who were staying at the resort’s hotel were asked to leave the building with their belongings, the fire department spokesman added.
Buses have been sent to the complex to shelter people leaving the hotel as temperatures outside Berlin hover around -7 degrees, police said.
(Written by Rachel More and Maria Sheahan; French version Jean Rosset, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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