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Radisson Collection Berlin’s famous lobby aquarium explodes, injuring two

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Over the years we have used the photo below on the site in various stories about Radisson Hotels.

It is the Radisson Collection hotel in Berlin, until recently a Radisson Blu, which contains a huge aquarium in its lobby.

Or, indeed, ‘did’ contain a huge aquarium in its lobby.

Radisson Blu Berlin

Called the AquaDom and built at a cost of €12m, it is 45 feet high and contains 1,500 tropical fish.

The hotel called it ‘the largest free-standing cylindrical aquarium in the world’ although I’m not sure there is much competition for that title.

At 6.30am on Friday morning, the aquarium appears to have exploded. There is no indication as to how it happened.

Two people were reportedly injured by glass shards – a low number presumably due to the timing of the incident. The street outside the hotel has had to be closed due to flooding and, presumably, dead fish and lots of glass. The aquarium apparently contained over one million litres of water.

There is a video of the damage on the BBC News website here.


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Comments (71)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • yorkieflyer says:

    Perhaps they’ll deploy search and rescue cats?

    • Jan M says:

      +1

    • dougzz99 says:

      Serve champagne in plastic and it’s the end of the world for many here. But 1500 unnecessarily captive creatures dead and it’s time for a good laugh.
      I think humour can overcome a lot, but sometimes the balance is lost.

      • yorkieflyer says:

        It’s called gallows humour, laughing in the face of adversity and so on I think you’ll find. A well established coping mechanism for many folk which doesn’t lessen their concern for suffering

        • dougzz99 says:

          I think that has validity in respect of a personal situation and what you discuss in person. When written on the Internet it can send a very different message.

  • slidey says:

    Was gonna go have a look at the aquadom tomorrow.. prolly not now!

  • The Original Nick. says:

    What a shame – those poor fish. I’ve seen the aquarium about 5 or 6 years ago as I was walking past and popped in to see it all. Quite an amazing tank really.

  • Jimbob says:

    “ On its website on Friday it said the attraction was temporarily closed and asked visitors to reschedule their tickets” BBC News

    Looking at the video, I’d suggest the words temporarily and reschedule aren’t required

  • mrs_fussy says:

    My lord ! Glad everyone is safe but so many beautiful creatures lost.

    This is always my biggest worry whenever we are at the Atlantis and admiring the aquavarium

  • StanTheMan says:

    Anyone got a discount code for the new sushi bar at the Radisson Berlin ?

  • Robert says:

    Stayed here a few months ago and it’s a very nice hotel in one of the best locations the city has to offer. The huge aqaurium was very impressive and unique. Sad to hear this news, the only positive is the time of day, it could’ve been an awful lot worse.

    • Travel Strong says:

      Indeed, my memory of this hotel is lines 20 people deep waiting to see the front desk for frustrations like duff room key cards! That was some time ago though and hopefully RFID has replaced the magstripe.

      Other memories are not fond either though, the room stank and after a while I tracked it down to the cuck chair, which distinctly smelt of poo. I couldn’t get interest from the front desk so put it in the corridor and made do.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    The poor fish 😔

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