“We heard a strong explosion and thunder,” this is how tourists describe their impressions when they find themselves in a hotel where the largest cylindrical aquarium in the world burst (however, it seems that an even larger aquarium is installed in Moscow in the Aviapark shopping center). We are talking about the Radisson Blu hotel, where until recently the local landmark – Dom Aquaree – an aquarium 16 meters high and 11.5 meters in diameter, towered. The aquarium separately attracted locals and tourists – hotel guests could ride the elevator through the aquarium and look at the fish living in it for 19 euros.
But around 6:00 a.m. Friday, according to Bild, emergency services received their first call to report that the aquarium had burst.
“Early in the morning, around 6 o'clock, I heard a strong explosion, thunder. I didn't understand what was going on at all. I called my friend and went to her room. From there we saw the aquarium and all the destruction. Everything is flooded with water, ”say the tourists who were at that moment in the hotel. And they were still lucky – as the publication clarifies, in the hotel, some doors and windows were knocked out by a stream of water from the aquarium, and the entire basement was flooded. At least two people were injured by broken glass, according to police. Fish from the aquarium – and there were more than one and a half thousand – according to the publication, all died.
Because of the state of emergency, even the Karl-Liebknecht-Straße street, where the hotel is located, had to be blocked. A stormy stream of water – the aquarium held at least 1 million liters – demolished all the doors of the hotel, and the street was flooded with water, movement along it is limited. Ambulances and a fire brigade are on the scene.
The causes of the disaster are still unclear, but it has already been suggested that Dom Aquaree burst due to “material fatigue”. At the same time, the aquarium was opened after repairs, which lasted two and a half years, only this summer. The reconstruction cost 2.6 million euros. By the way, the aquarium was designed by the architect Sergei Choban, whose works are also found in Russia. For example, the famous Federation Tower in Moscow City.
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