Mall aquarium in Dubai springs a leak, douses shoppers

BEIRUT —
When you’re shopping for a pair of Seven jeans or ankle boots, you
wouldn’t expect to be met by a flood of saltwater and the imminent
specter of sharks. But shoppers at the Dubai Mall faced just that prospect Thursday when the center’s massive aquarium sprung a leak.

Amateur video of the incident shows panicked
shoppers slogging about as water gushes forth. Media in the Persian
Gulf city-state referred to it as a minor leak and said it was quickly
brought under control by the aquarium maintenance team without causing
harm to the creatures inside.

The 2.65-million-gallon Dubai Aquarium was designed to hold more than 33,000 creatures from 85 species, according to Dubai’s Khaleej Times. Among the specimens are more than 400 sharks and stingrays.

“A leakage was noticed at one of the panel joints of the Dubai Aquarium at the Dubai Mall and was immediately fixed,” said a statement issued by the mall.

Coincidentally, the incident took place during the
Dubai Shopping Festival, an annual celebration of the city-state’s
status as a consumer haven.

But someone might want to have a word with the developers of the mall, Emaar Properties.
That’s the same company that constructed the record-shattering,
half-mile-tall Burj Khalifa skyscraper. The 160-story tower was shut
down earlier this month, a month following its opening, after an
elevator malfunctioned, trapping 15 passengers for nearly an hour.

Emaar, with strong ties to the Dubai’s ruling family, was struck hard by the global financial meltdown.

—

(c) 2010, Los Angeles Times.

Visit the Los Angeles Times on the Internet at http://www.latimes.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.