Monday, July 22
Panic at the pool? It must be summer in Berlin
The first weekend of the summer holiday saw serious incidents at several outdoor swimming pools in Berlin. The most grievous came yesterday, when the Sommerbad Wilmersdorf was completely evacuated after an 11-year-old boy was pulled unconscious from the water. He had apparently been underwater for several minutes and was successfully resuscitated by rescue workers. After regaining consciousness, the boy was taken to the hospital by ambulance.
Wilmersdorf was not the only outdoor pool that had to be cleared out on Sunday, however. An incident in Sommerbad Insulaner in Steglitz – also on Sunday, also requiring the presence of emergency services – saw that pool completely evacuated, too.
And yet neither of these incidents were the first closure of an outdoor pool this summer: that dubious honour fell to the Sommerbad Lipschitzallee in Neukölln, where a fight broke out on Saturday evening that caused the entire premises to be cleared of people after 20 young people reportedly beat up two brothers.
Berlin is no stranger to this sort of thing. Last year, regular fights at the Colombiabad swimming pool led to high levels of staff calling in sick and the premises closed for a week.
Three pool closures in one weekend? It must be summer in Berlin.
