Dubai Mall evacuated due to Aquarium leak

Shark-infested Mall

It's not exactly the kind of news the emirates needs if they're to keep attracting tourists during their credit crisis, but on top of stories of lifts breaking down and observation decks being closed in the Burj Khalifa, comes news that the Dubai Mall came perilously close to becoming shark infested.

The Mall features on of the world's largest aquariums which is the centre piece of the shopping complex. It houses  33,000 fish including 400 sharks and stingrays swimming in 10 million litres of water, but the sea-life almost got lose yesterday when the attraction sprung a leak.

Although the Mall's safety officials described the crack as 'small', when one has a leak in an attraction dubbed an "indoor ocean", alarm bells start to ring. Suitably the Mall was evacuated and engineers called into fix the leak. It was viewed as an indicator of the potential disaster, the engineers were spotted wearing life-jackets.

A worker in one of the Mall's outlets was quoted as saying, "The crack was pretty big. They stopped the water getting out quickly but a lot of the nearby shops on the ground floor got water damage. I don’t think any of the fish got out. We didn’t have sharks in the mall, luckily.”

About 100 shops are in the mall which lies adjacent to the aquarium. They were all evacuated while engineers worked on repairing the 75 centimetre thick glass. 

Another headache for Emaar

The Dubai Mall is owned by Emaar Properties, who also own the Burj Khalifa and this latest incident is no doubt unwelcome news considering the bad publicity they have had recently with the Burj Khalifa.

The properties development are still pressing ahead with projects in Dubai, such as a luxury hotel and apartments designed by Italian fashion giant Giorgio Armani, despite property values halving over the past twelve months due to the collapse of the emirate's real estate market and Dubai World's credit crisis.

Those wishing to visit the Dubai Mall will be relieved to hear that repairs have been completed and the attraction is now open again. The Dubai Aquarium boasts the world’s largest acrylic viewing panel at 272 square metres and attracts huge crowds since it opened last year. Those with the money to do it, can pay to scuba dive in the indoor ocean as well.

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Timon Singh

Timon Singh is a graduate of Liverpool University where he received a degree in Social and Economic History. He has previously worked for BBC Magazines on BBC Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, the publication for the popular genealogy show.

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