Oliver Ellrodt and Tobias Schlie wrote this article in Reuters:

A huge aquarium in Berlin burst early on Friday, spilling 1 million litres (264,172 gallons) of water, around 1,500 exotic fish and debris onto a major road in the busy Mitte district, emergency services said.

Around 100 emergency responders rushed to the site, a leisure complex that houses a Radisson hotel and a museum as well as what Sea Life Berlin said was the world's largest freestanding cylindrical aquarium at 14 metres (46ft) in height.

"It felt like an earthquake" said Naz Masraff, who had been staying at the hotel.

Another hotel guest, Sandra Weeser, spoke of chaos.

"The whole aquarium burst and what’s left is total devastation. Lots of dead fish, debris," she told Reuters.

The 1,500 fish from the aquarium died, said a spokesperson for Union Investment, which manages the real estate fund that owns the property.

Efforts are underway to rescue fish from several smaller tanks that were near the AquaDom and that escaped destruction but have been subjected to power cuts in the building, he said.

A spokesperson for the fire brigade told Reuters it was still unclear what had caused the AquaDom aquarium to burst.