Police in Georgia on Tuesday identified the person who had died after falling off a roller coaster at Six Flags on Monday. The man, Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem, a 42-year-old from Atlanta, was ejected from the ride, witnesses said, and struck other patrons as he fell.

In a statement, the Cobb County Police Department said Kariem was found “unresponsive and not breathing” when investigators showed up at the Six Flags Over Georgia amusement park in Austell, Georgia, about 17 miles west of Atlanta, just before 4 p.m. local time Monday.

Witnesses and employees described the fall to authorities, who are continuing their investigation. Several other people were injured on the roller coaster.

Additional details about the death, as well as the number of people injured and their conditions, were not immediately available Tuesday.

The episode has rattled Georgia. The Six Flags location is among the state’s largest and most popular theme parks, becoming over the past 60 years a fixture in the Atlanta metro area for recreational trips by families, schools and church groups. The park covers nearly 300 acres, with more than 40 attractions and a dozen roller coasters.

“We are all grappling with how something so devastating could happen at a place that has given generations of families such happy memories,” Lisa N. Cupid, the chair of Cobb County’s commissioners board, said in a statement.

After the fall Monday, Six Flags said it had temporarily closed some of its rides in the United States and Canada as a precaution.

A Six Flags representative said in a statement that park officials and local authorities had responded immediately but declined to describe what happened, citing the family’s privacy.

“We are deeply saddened by the guest incident at our park today,” the representative said.

A representative later said the company had closed the Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia, in addition to eight similar attractions across the company’s parks, “out of an abundance of caution.” The company said the closures were temporary, though it did not provide details about when the rides would be reopened.

The Six Flags representative did not confirm whether the incident Monday had occurred on the Goliath. The roller coaster is an “intense 70-mile-per-hour thrill ride” that reaches an elevation of 200 feet, Six Flags says on its website.

Six Flags said Monday that it had temporarily closed the following rides:

— Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois

— Goliath at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California

— Nitro at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey

— Leviathan and Behemoth at Canada’s Wonderland in Vaughan, Ontario

— Fury 325 and Thunder Striker at Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina

— Orion and Diamondback at Kings Island in Kings Island, Ohio

The tragedy Monday at Six Flags Over Georgia happened less than a month after three people sued Six Flags and S&S Worldwide, a manufacturer of roller coaster vehicles, saying they suffered catastrophic brain injuries after riding X2, a roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park in Southern California.

The lawsuits accused Six Flags of failing to adequately warn passengers about the risks to riders.

The X2 is a 200-foot-high roller coaster with seats that rotate independently as the train travels along the track, spinning riders by as much as 360 degrees. It reaches speeds of up to 76 mph and sends riders through dives, flips and twists.

In court filings in an earlier case involving X2, Six Flags denied that the roller coaster had caused a rider’s fatal brain injury. The ride has been closed since July.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Mark Walker, Laura Chung and Christine Hauser
c. 2026 The New York Times Company