15 July 2022

Danish rollercoaster to be scrapped after girl’s death

15 July 2022

An amusement park in north-west Denmark is to scrap a rollercoaster for good after a 14-year-old girl died, reportedly when the rear part of the ride came off the rails.

A 13-year-old boy also suffered hand injuries on Thursday on the Cobraen rollercoaster at the Tivoli Friheden amusement park in Aarhus, Denmark’s second-largest city.

“There is no doubt that the ride will be shut down and torn apart,” Tivoli Friheden amusement park manager Henrik Ragborg Olsen told local newspaper Aarhus Stiftstidende.

Manager of Tivoli Friheden amusement park Henrik Ragborg Olsen said the ride will be scrapped (Mikkel Berg Pedersen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP) (AP)

The cause of the derailment is under investigation.

Mr Ragborg Olsen told the paper on Thursday that “the rear two seats” of Cobraen were hanging “under the wagon train”.

The rollercoaster is 25m (82ft) high and the wagons have a top speed of 70kph (44mph), according to the Tivoli Friheden website.

In 2008, four people were slightly injured when the same rollercoaster broke down, only days after it had been inaugurated.

The amusement park, which will remain closed until Monday, is located in the southern part of Aarhus, 97 miles north west of Copenhagen.

The best videos delivered daily

Watch the stories that matter, right from your inbox