A driver was killed in the early hours today when his VW Golf car was in collision with a Bentley carrying pupils on their way home from a school prom.

The unnamed man, aged 20, died at the scene of the tragedy in Walsall Wood Road, Aldridge, despite efforts by fire and ambulance crews to save him.

Two of the four male passengers in the chauffeur-driven silver Bentley Continental Flying Spur suffered minor injuries in the accident, which happened at 1.25am near the junction with Noddy Park Road. The 33-year-old chauffeur was unhurt.

Fire crew commander Phil James said it was not known which school the pupils attended but they were returning from an end-of-year celebration in the Bentley.

“It was a sad way for them to end the night and this is a prom they will never forget,” he said.

“We were first on the scene. Two of us pulled the driver out of a VW Golf and we tried to revive him until the ambulance team arrived. Unfortunately he died at the scene.”

The Golf was travelling towards Walsall and the Bentley was travelling in the opposite direction.

An ambulance service spokesman said the injured passengers made their own way to hospital.