Police have said they found no evidence of a malicious act but the cause of the spectacular collapse shortly before 6 a.m. on Friday, in which two people were slightly injured, remains unclear. Berlin’s top security official, Iris Spranger, told German news agency dpa on Friday that “first indications point to material fatigue.”
Officials said on Friday evening that the hotel building itself was assessed to be safe.
The local government said that nearly all of the 1,500 fish that were inside at the time of the rupture died but “a few fish at the bottom of the tank” were saved. About 400 to 500 mostly small fish from a separate set of aquariums housed under the hotel lobby were evacuated to other tanks in a neighboring aquarium that was unaffected.
The AquaDom aquarium opened in December 2003 and was modernized in 2020.
Grand Junction, Colorado-based Reynolds Polymer, which says on its website that 41 of its acrylic panels were used in building the tank cylinder, said it “offers its sincere concern” to the hotel guests and workers who were affected and to those who were injured. It said that “we are also deeply saddened by the animals and aquatic life lost.”
