A 14-year-old girl died at a popular amusement park in northern Denmark, police have said, reportedly when the rear part of a rollercoaster ride came off the rails.

A 13 year-old boy suffered injuries to one hand, police said.

Henrik Ragborg Olsen, manager of the Tivoli Friheden amusement park in Aarhus, Denmark’s second-largest city, told local newspaper Aarhus Stiftstidende that “the rear two seats” of the Cobraen rollercoaster were hanging “under the wagon train”.

Police said they got a call at 12.50pm local time saying that a car was stuck on a ride in Tivoli Friheden and several people were stuck.

Two people were sitting on the rear seats and were taken by emergency workers, the newspaper reported.

Mr Ragborg Olsen told the Ekstra Bladet daily that the two had been seriously injured and were taken to hospital.

The accident occurred on the Cobraen rollercoaster and the park has been shut down, police said.

An investigation has been launched into what caused the accident with police questioning witnesses.

The rollercoaster is 25 metres (82ft) tall and the wagons have a top speed of 70 kilometres per hour (44mph), according to the Friheden’s website.

The amusement park sits in the southern part of Aarhus, 156 kilometres (97 miles) north-west of Copenhagen.