A teenager from Iceland has died after falling from a rollercoaster ride in Benidorm, Spain, officials said.

The 18-year-old, who was on holiday with his family and a friend, was thrown from the green-coloured, twisting ride called the Inferno at the Terra Mitica (Mythical Land) amusement park on Monday, police said.

"We received a call at 4:45pm because an 18-year-old man, who was Icelandic, apparently because of a fault in the seat's harness, was thrown out,"a source at Alicante provincial police station told AFP. "He hit the ground and died shortly afterwards in the ambulance."

Police said the seat's harness opened but it was unclear if the cause was a mechanical fault. The ride had been closed during police investigations. The victim has not been named.

In a statement the amusement park management said the rollercoaster had been officially certified as safe and it was checked daily by staff.

"For the moment the cause of the accident is unknown," management said. "Terra Mitica will carry on investigating the cause of this most unfortunate incident … the management offer all their support to the family." The park added that it had a spotless safety record for the previous 14 years.

A spokeswoman for the regional Valencia high court said an investigating judge was awaiting a police report within the next few days and would then decide on further action to discover what happened.