Security personnel inside the mall after it was evacuated when water started gushing out of the aquarium
Emergency crews are seen arriving at Dubai Mall following the incident
Visitors view the huge aquarium in Dubai Mall
Leak: A torrent of water gushes out of the giant Dubai Mall aquarium after a crack opens up in the glass
Part of the vast Dubai Mall has been evacuated after its giant aquarium developed a leak, a police official said today.
The aquarium, one of the largest tanks in the world at 167ft by 66ft, has hundreds of living animals including Sand Tiger sharks and rays.
It is thought to have developed a crack and a witness said people in part of the mall were evacuated and dozens of emergency vehicles were outside.
Six divers entered the tank and appeared to be coordinating with workers outside the glass, while workers mopped up water from the floor.
Emaar's chairman Mohammed Alabbar denied there was a leak in the aquarium, saying there was a 'technical fault in the operating device,' according to a statement carried on the country's official news agency WAM.
But a witness said water had been leaking from a crack in the aquarium glass.
'I saw a small crack in the aquarium glass and there was a little water coming out and a lot of water on the floor,' said Ranjin, a 27-year old corporate secretary.
'The police came and evacuated the area around the aquarium.'
Dubai Aquarium is planning to have more than 33,000 animals representing more than 85 species in the giant tank.
It also features an underwater zoo which has penguins, seals, crocodiles and water rats among its attractions.
It is operated by Emaar Properties and also features the world's largest acrylic viewing panel.
One million people had already visited the aquarium seven months after it had opened.
This is the latest in a string of problems for the aquarium.
Shortly before its opening in October 2008, over ten per cent of the sharks in the tank were been killed in attacks that marred the build-up to its unveiling.
Sand Tiger sharks killed at least 40 smaller reef sharks and were aggressive towards divers working on final preparations in the giant tank.
Dubai Mall, the world's largest shopping mall by total area, contains around 600 retailers and had over 37 million visitors in its first year of operation.
It now has an average of 750,000 visitors every week. As well as shops and restaurants, the Mall also contains an ice rink and cinema.
Emaar Properties, the Arab world's largest developer, came under scrutiny earlier this month when it closed the observation deck at Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower and the firm's flagship project, just a month after its fanfare opening.
On Christmas Day, the president and first lady Michelle greeted diners at the base's Anderson Hall, as they did last year. Obama also has used the base for his press statements during this vacation.
First daughters Malia and Sasha are huge fans of Island Snow
President Obama helps eldest daughter Malia choose which flavour of shaved ice to go for
President 'Snowbama' tentatively licks his ice cone before going in for a huge bite
Barack Obama seems sure to maintain his status as the coolest President in US history - after enjoying a traditional ‘shave ice’ while on holiday in his native Hawaii.
As the temperature reached 25C (77F) on the main island of Oahu, Mr Obama popped into the Island Snow shop with daughters Malia and Sasha.
They and about a dozen friends and bodyguards enjoyed the local delicacy, a mixture of ice shavings and flavoured syrup served in a paper cone.
Mr Obama ordered a combination of lemon and lime, cherry and passion guava – dubbed the Snowbama by store staff.
But he chose not to add sweet azuki red beans or ice cream, as is the custom.
Wearing sunglasses and dressed casually in a white T-shirt, khaki shorts and sandals, he told onlookers: ‘I like my shave ice straight, no frills.’
About 100 people flocked to the shopping centre car park to catch a glimpse of the President and his family – minus First Lady Michelle – on their New Year’s Day visit.
The store also announced on the website Facebook that Mr Obama’s daughters had paid a visit earlier in their holiday.
The Obamas have stayed largely out of public view during their break.
However, last week 11-year-old Malia was pictured learning to surf as proud Michelle looked on.
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President Obama has stayed even closer than usual to Marine Corps Base Hawaii on his latest O'ahu vacation.
And the reasons are probably as much security-conscious as symbolic for a wartime commander in chief from the Democratic Party.
"The military tends to be more right wing, conservative leaning, and there's a bias when you have a Democratic, liberal president," said Michael Naho'opi'i, who graduated from the Naval Academy in 1986, retired as a lieutenant commander and is now executive director of the Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission. "A lot of it has to do with security. But it does show that he supports the troops."
As on last year's Hawai'i Christmas vacation as president-elect, Obama has begun his days with early-morning workouts at Marine Corps Base Hawaii's Semper Fit gym, which sits next to his beachfront rental home in Kailua.
But on this trip, Obama has returned to the nearly 1,000-acre base several times after working out: to take family and friends for private beach time Dec. 27 at Pyramid Rock out of the eye of reporters and photographers; to play a private basketball game in the gym, also on Dec. 27; to make two widely publicized statements about the Christmas Day attempted terrorist attack on a commercial airliner; and, joined by the first lady, to shake hands with Marines, soldiers and sailors on Christmas Day, for the second year in a row.
As the president's Hawai'i vacation neared its conclusion, he returned to the base again yesterday, with family and friends, to enjoy the beach after a morning visit to Sea Life Park in Waimanalo.
Last year, during an August vacation break from the presidential campaign trail, Obama stepped out from the same rental home he's staying in now to deliver a sidewalk statement on Russia's incursion into neighboring Georgia.
Various media reports at the time referred to the "palm tree-lined driveway" that served as a backdrop for Obama's statement.
This time, Obama's entourage erected an ad hoc briefing room, along with a decidedly more presidential-looking podium, inside the Mauka Ballroom of the Marines' Klipper Golf Course.
"He is the commander in chief and he takes that seriously," said Dan Boylan, a Hawai'i political commentator and University of Hawai'i-West O'ahu professor. "But the security guys clearly want to keep him close to base." Commander in chief
Even for military members who preferred Republican Sen. John McCain for president, Obama is still their commander in chief, said Jim Hickerson, 75, a Vietnam POW and retired Navy captain who lives near the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.
During his Navy career, Hickerson met and admired President Reagan in California and said, "I am not a very big Obama fan."
"But it's great to have a president here, there's no doubt about it," Hickerson said. "The president's the president. I have the utmost respect for the office. He's our commander in chief. Having him come by (Marine Corps Base Hawaii) is an honor, whether you respect him or not."
The base is well suited to accommodate the president and his family.
Anderson Hall — where Obama and the first lady thanked military members for their service and wished them Merry Christmas — is outfitted with new 52-inch and 42-inch flat-screen televisions and has been named the best chow hall in the entire Marine Corps three years running.
"We feel our amenities exceed what you would typically find at other bases, without calling them extravagant," said Col. Robert D. Rice, commanding officer of Marine Corps Base Hawaii. "We're particularly proud of our Klipper Golf Course and its newly refurbished club. Our Semper Fit gym, where the commander in chief has worked out each morning of his stay thus far, has approximately 20 percent of its strength-training equipment replaced or upgraded each year. Our basketball court in the gym just had its floor resurfaced in September, as it has almost every year in the last several years. Our cardio training equipment is as modern as you'd find in most gyms out in town." 'superb relationship'
Marines have been assigned to the Windward side's Mokapu Peninsula since Dec. 7, 1941, when Japanese fighters strafed Naval Air Station Kane'ohe Bay eight minutes before the main attack on Pearl Harbor.
On Jan. 15, 1952, Marine Corps Air Station, Kaneohe Bay was officially commissioned. Today, Marine Corps Base Hawaii is home to more than 7,500 Marines and more than 7,000 family members, with hundreds more sailors, Marines and civilians pouring in each day.
Rice, the base's commanding officer, said the Marines "enjoy a superb relationship with the White House staff and Secret Service, and eagerly look forward to supporting future presidential visits to Hawai'i."
The Marines' accommodations are good to go for the leader of the free world, said base spokesman Maj. Alan Crouch. But there is one spot on base that even the Marines can't improve on, Crouch said.
Where the first family enjoyed a beach picnic at Pyramid Rock, Crouch said, "there's no improving on perfection."
Anything my big sister can do: Malia's younger sister Sasha also manages to stand up on her board - although it looks as though she may have gotten a bit of sneaky help
Look at me, Mom! Michelle Obama, left, applauds her daughter Malia at the family's rented holiday home
Yes I can! Malia Obama manages to get to her feet as she holidays with her family in Hawaii
Fore! Barack Obama gets into the swing of it while playing golf yesterday
Down time: Mr Obama (right) and his daughters Malia (light) and Sasha (centre) leave a shopping mall after watching the film Avatar yesterday
His troubles may have been mounting as he enters a new year in the White House, but President Obama had rather more down-to-earth concerns as he enjoyed a family holiday in Hawaii.
While his domestic and foreign policies have come under fire over the festive period, the President focused his attention on getting to grips with a more mundane issue - his golf swing.
The president hit the links at Mid-Pacific Country Club - just hours after starting his day with a workout at the gym on the Marine Corps base in Kaneohe Bay. With their dad relaxing on the golf course, the rest of the Obamas took to the waves as his daughter Malia learned to surf.
After a few wobbly attempts, the 11-year-old managed to stand upright on her board to the delight of her mother Michelle, who was watching with a group of young friends. The family were pictured on the beach in front of the house they are renting in a suburb of Honolulu.
But it wasn't all sports for the Obamas - the family did find time to relax at the cinema also, with a private showing of James Cameron's Avatar. The Obamas visited a cinema near their rented house yesterday morning for a screening of the 3-D hit, before the day's regular screenings began.
Mr Obama, a self-described film buff, left his compound with Sasha, Malia and wife Michelle before noon on New Year's Eve.
The family have been in Hawaii since Christmas. They are set to return to Washington in the new year.
U.S. Coast Guard officers Lt. Josh Nelson, left, Capt. Tom Farris, center, and Rear Adm. Joseph Castillo, right, arrive to speak at a news conference held at the San Diego Coast Guard Station Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 in San Diego. The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy were searching early Friday for as many as nine people off the Southern California coast following a collision between a Coast Guard plane and a Marine Corps helicopter, officials said.
U.S. Coast Guard divers board a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter at the San Diego Coast Guard Station Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 in San Diego. The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy were searching early Friday for as many as nine people off the Southern California coast following a collision between a Coast Guard plane and a Marine Corps helicopter, officials said.
This image provided by the U.S. Coast Guard shows a Coast Guard aircrew member from Sector San Diego conducting search patterns east of San Clemente Island Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 to search for survivors of a mid-air collision that occurred Thursday. The collision occurred between a Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules and a Marine AH-1 Super Cobra
U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Joseph Castillo, left, speaks at a news conference as Marine Corps Maj. Jay DeLaRosa, right, looks on at the San Diego Coast Guard Station Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 in San Diego. The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy were searching early Friday for as many as nine people off the Southern California coast following a collision between a Coast Guard plane and a Marine Corps helicopter, officials said.
A U.S. Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter lifts off at the San Diego Coast Guard Station during a search effort Friday, Oct. 30, 2009, in San Diego.A Marine attack helicopter that collided with a Coast Guard search plane off Southern California was one of four helicopters flying in formation to deliver Marines to a training island. All nine crew members from the airplane and helicopter remain missing Friday.
U.S. Marine Corps Major Jay DeLaRosa talks about the search effort during a news conference held at the San Diego Coast Guard Station Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 in San Diego. The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy were searching early Friday for as many as nine people off the Southern California coast following a collision between a Coast Guard plane and a Marine Corps helicopter, officials said.
U.S. Coast Guard pilots taxi in a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter before taking off during a search mission at the San Diego Coast Guard Station Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 in San Diego. The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy were searching early Friday for as many as nine people off the Southern California coast following a collision between a Coast Guard plane and a Marine Corps helicopter, officials said.
A U.S. Coast Guardsman boards a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter at the San Diego Coast Guard Station Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 in San Diego. The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy were searching early Friday for as many as nine people off the Southern California coast following a collision between a Coast Guard plane and a Marine Corps helicopter, officials said.
U.S. Coast Guard pilots prepare a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter before taking off on a search mission at the San Diego Coast Guard Station Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 in San Diego. The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy were searching early Friday for as many as nine people off the Southern California coast following a collision between a Coast Guard plane and a Marine Corps helicopter, officials said.
A U.S. Coast Guardsman boards a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter at the San Diego Coast Guard Station Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 in San Diego. The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy were searching early Friday for as many as nine people off the Southern California coast following a collision between a Coast Guard plane and a Marine Corps helicopter, officials said.
The U.S. Coast Guard has identified nine people feared dead at sea following an air collision between a Coast Guard aircraft and a Marine Corps helicopter.
The missing crew members from the Coast Guard C-130 are all stationed in Sacramento, Calif., where their aircraft was based. They are:
_ Lt. Cmdr. Che J. Barnes, 35, Capay, Calif., aircraft commander.
_ Lt. Adam W. Bryant, 28, Crewe, Va., co-pilot.
_ Chief Petty Officer John F. Seidman, 43, Stockton, Calif., flight engineer.
_ Petty Officer 2nd Class Carl P. Grigonis, 35, Mayfield Heights, Ohio, navigator.
_ Petty Officer 2nd Class Monica L. Beacham, 29, Decaturville, Tenn., radio operator.
_ Petty Officer 2nd Class Jason S. Moletzsky, 26, Norristown, Pa., air crew.
_ Petty Officer 3rd Class Danny R. Kreder II, 22, Elm Mott, Texas, drop master.
The missing crew members from the Marine Corps helicopter are:
_ Maj. Samuel Leigh, 35, Kennebec, Maine.
_ 1st Lt. Thomas Claiborne, 26, Douglas, Colo.
A flotilla of rescue vessels continued its search Saturday for nine people feared dead at sea following an air collision between a Coast Guard aircraft and a Marine Corps helicopter.
Six Coast Guard cutters, three Navy ships and multiple helicopters searched the ocean off Southern California. Rescuers had found several pieces of debris from both aircraft but there was no sign of the victims. No bodies have been found in the debris field, and the mission is still considered search and rescue, not search and recovery, Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Jetta Disco said Saturday morning.
Thursday's crash involved a Coast Guard C-130 with a seven-member crew and a Marine Corps AH-1W Super Cobra with two aboard as it flew in formation near the Navy's San Clemente Island, a site with training ranges for amphibious, air, surface and undersea warfare.
The collision occurred as the Coast Guard airplane was itself carrying out a search for a missing boatman.
Officials were collecting evidence and reviewing recordings of transmissions by the aircraft to try to determine how the collision occurred.
The Coast Guard on Saturday identified the nine missing crew members. All seven aboard the Coast Guard plane are stationed at the Coast Guard Air Station in Sacramento, Calif., where their aircraft was based.
Connie Seidman of Carmichael, Calif., whose 43-year-old son was aboard the plane, said he had been in the Coast Guard since he was 20 and loved to fly. Chief Petty Officer John Seidman of Stockton, Calif., last visited his family in February after returning from a posting in Hawaii, and they talked on the phone often.
Seidman said Saturday she was thinking about "all the things that we wanted to tell him that we can't."
"He was flying, just like he liked to," she said.
The aircraft commander, Lt. Cmdr. Che Barnes, 35, is from Capay, Calif. His co-pilot, Lt. Adam Bryant, 28, is from Crewe, Va.
The missing crew members from the Marine helicopter are Maj. Samuel Leigh, 35, of Kennebec, Maine, and 1st Lt. Thomas Claiborne, 26, of Douglas, Colo.
The accident happened at 7:10 p.m. in airspace uncontrolled by the FAA and inside a so-called military warning area, which is at times open to civilian aircraft and at times closed for military use, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said. He did not know the status of the airspace at the time.
Capt. Tom Farris, commander of the Coast Guard's San Diego sector, said it's not unusual to have a high volume of military traffic working in training areas and pilots in the area are responsible for seeing other aircraft around them under a so-called "see-and-avoid principle."
Minutes before the collision, the FAA told the C-130 pilot to begin communicating with military controllers at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego Bay, but it was not known if the pilot did so, Gregor said.
The search covered 644 square miles of ocean but rescuers were concentrating on a debris field 50 miles off the San Diego coast.
The Sacramento-based C-130 crew was looking for 50-year-old David Jines, who was reported missing after leaving Avalon Harbor on Santa Catalina Island man in a 12-foot motorized skiff to reach a friend in high winds Tuesday, authorities said.
The four-engine plane was conducting its search from an altitude of 900 to 1,000 feet and visibility was 15 miles.
Jines' friend, Linda Jones, told The Associated Press that Jines boarded her disabled yacht and helped her maneuver to an area where they thought they had made anchor. After helping her, he set off to return to his sailboat, which was anchored at the Avalon harbor.
She reported Jines missing the next day when she returned to the harbor and couldn't find him.
"I didn't know Dave was in any kind of peril," she said.
