A SCHOOLBOY died a few yards from his home after a car ploughed into him in a hit and run smash.

Michael Gale, 14, and German exchange student Sascha Berlinke, were on Coastal Road in Hest Bank - close to the junction of Madison Avenue - when a black Volkswagon Golf hit him just before 4pm last Thursday.

Despite the frantic efforts of Sascha, also 14, passers-by and paramedics, Michael died shortly after arriving at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

The black Volkswagon Golf drove away from the scene after the accident.

The youngster's distraught parents Alan and Katrina Gale said: "Michael was a good looking typical teenage boy full of life and mischief. We all love him very much and will miss him always."

Sascha was staying with Michael and his family as part of an exchange trip from his school in Rendsberg.

The pair were heading back to Michael's Madison Avenue home after being at Ripley St Thomas school in Lancaster.

The road was closed for several hours while accident inspectors carried out investigations.

A short time after Michael was killed, a Volkswagon Golf car was found abandoned a few hundred yards away from the scene in Hatlex Lane, Hest Bank.

The driver of a black Volkswagon Golf later handed himself into police and has been bailed to appear back at Lancaster police station on April 21.