A police officer shot his 16-year-old daughter mistakenly believing her to be an intruder, then crashed his car on the way to the hospital, after the teenager came back home following a night out.

Sergeant Easton McDonald, who works for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia, was at home getting ready for work at roughly 3.30am on Tuesday when he heard the garage alarm sounding.

As he approached the interior of the garage he heard bangs and sounds coming from within, so grabbed a gun.

He opened the door and saw the dark figure of a person walking towards him and fired his weapon at her torso.

“The homeowner determined that he had just shot his 16-year-old daughter who was attempting the sneak back into the residence after sneaking out earlier that morning without the parent’s knowledge,” a statement from the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office said.

She is in hospital in a stable condition, officers confirmed, with an investigation now underway.

Ten minutes after Mr McDonald rang emergency services to tell them he was transporting a gunshot victim to hospital, he rang again to advise that he had crashed into a barricade.

He damaged the front of his vehicle but caused no additional injuries to himself or his daughter, Captain Donnie Lang said, according to ABC7.

Paramedics arrived at the scene, at East Lane and Cork Street, and took the girl to hospital.