AquaDom Aquarium Explodes at Radisson Hotel in Berlin

“AQUARIUM EXPLODES” was the headline all over social media this morning. The Radisson Blu hotel’s enormous aquarium in the lobby ruptured on Friday, spilling thousands of gallons of water, tropical fish, and debris into Berlin’s chilly streets.

Several media publications, including The New York Times, reported that the 50-foot-tall, 38-foot-wide AquaDom aquarium, which was later forced to be evacuated, was the largest freestanding aquarium in the world according to its creators when it exploded before 6 a.m. local time.

After over 100 first responders arrived at the site, which was close to the main plaza of Alexanderplatz, the outlet said that at least two people had been transported to the local area hospital with glass-related injuries.

According to the Associated Press, some 300 guests were evacuated from the hotel.

The circular aquarium, which encircled the hotel’s glass elevator and provided an inside-out view of the marine life, had some 1,500 tropical fish from 100 different species.

“It’s a picture of devastation with lots of dead fish and broken shards, the ones that might have been saved were frozen to death,” said Sandra Weeser, a representative of the federal parliament who had been staying at the hotel.

View Aftermath When AquaDom Aquarium Explodes

One Twitter user @QuakeChaser35 posted footage of the devastation.

“The fish that have survived are being moved as safely as possible,” said Markus Kamrad, an official representative of the Berlin Senate, told news sources. “Our Plan A is to reactivate the electricity. Plan B would be to bring them to a safe location, and we have some offers from places that say they are ready to take them.”

Although the cause of the incident is still unknown, authorities were looking into potential structural problems that the explosion might have caused to the hotel.

Police do not believe it was a targeted attack, according to the BBC; local media suggested that a technical issue may have been to blame.