BERLIN, Dec 16 (Portal) – An aquarium in Berlin that housed some 1,500 exotic fish ruptured early Friday, spilling 1 million liters (264,172 gallons) of water and debris onto a main street in the busy Mitte district, emergency services said.
About 100 rescue workers rushed to the scene, a leisure complex that houses a Radisson hotel, museum, shops and restaurants, as well as what DomAquaree complex says is the world’s largest free-standing cylindrical aquarium at 14 meters (46 feet) tall.
“In addition to the incredible damage at sea … two people were injured by broken glass,” said the Berlin police on Twitter.
A spokesman for the Berlin fire brigade said the emergency services could not get to the first floor of the building because of the debris. Search and rescue dogs would be sent to the scene, he added.
The spokesman said it was still unclear what caused the aquarium to burst. Neither the fire brigade nor the police commented on the fate of the fish.
Around 350 people who had stayed in the hotel in the facility were asked to pack their things and leave the building, said the fire department spokesman.
Buses were sent to the complex to offer shelter to people leaving the hotel as outside temperatures in Berlin hovered around -7 degrees Celsius (19.4 degrees F), police said.
Rescue workers blocked a main thoroughfare next to the complex, which leads from Alexanderplatz towards the Brandenburg Gate, because of the large amounts of water that had flowed out of the building.
Written by Rachel More and Maria Sheahan, Editing by Kirsti Knolle, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Gareth Jones
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