A huge aquarium in Berlin burst, spilling debris, water and hundreds of tropical fish out of the AquaDom tourist attraction in the heart of the German capital early Friday.
Police said parts of the building, which also contains a hotel, cafes and a chocolate store, were damaged as 1 million liters (264,000 gallons) of water poured from the aquarium shortly before 6 a.m. (0500 GMT). Berlin's fire service said two people were slightly injured.
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Mayor Franziska Giffey said the incident had unleashed a "veritable tsunami" of water but the early morning timing had prevented far more injuries. "Despite all the destruction, we were still very lucky," she said. "We would have had terrible human damage" had the aquarium burst even an hour later, once more people were awake and in the hotel and the surrounding area, she said.
The 25 meters tall (82 feet tall) AquaDom was described as the biggest cylindrical tank in the world and held more than a thousand tropical fish before the incident. Among the 80 types of fish it housed were blue tang and clownfish, two colorful species known from the popular animated movie "Finding Nemo."
"Unfortunately, none of the 1,500 fish could be saved," Giffey said.
Efforts were underway Friday afternoon to save an additional 400 to 500 smaller fish housed in aquariums underneath the hotel lobby. Without electricity, their tanks were not receiving the necessary oxygen for them to survive, officials said.
"Now it's about evacuating them quickly," Almut Neumann, a city official in charge of environmental issues for Berlin's Mitte district, told German news agency dpa.
