This morning, the headline across social media was "AQUARIUM EXPLODES!" The gigantic aquarium in the lobby of the Radisson Blu hotel ruptured on Friday, dumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of water, tropical fish, and debris into Berlin's frigid streets.
The 50-foot-tall, 38-foot-wide AquaDom aquarium, which subsequently had to be evacuated, was the biggest freestanding aquarium in the world, according to its creators, when it exploded just before 6 a.m. local time, according to a number of media outlets, including The New York Times.
The neighboring hospital received at least two patients with glass-related injuries after more than 100 emergency personnel responded at the scene, which was close to Alexanderplatz's central plaza.
The Associated Press reports that 300 guests were removed from the hotel.
Around 1,500 tropical fish from 100 different species could be found in the circular aquarium, which surrounded the hotel's glass elevator and offered an inside-out view of the marine life.
Sandra Weeser, a member of the federal parliament who was staying at the hotel, described the scene as "a picture of destruction with heaps of dead fish and broken shards; the ones that may have been spared were frozen to death."
Markus Kamrad, an authorized representative of the Berlin Senate, told news organizations that "the fish that have survived are being relocated as carefully as possible." "Our first course of action is to turn on the electricity. Plan B would be to transport them to a secure location, and we have had offers from organizations willing to do so.
Authorities were investigating potential structural issues that the explosion might have brought to the hotel, despite the fact that the source of the incident is yet unknown.
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