A POLICE officer was injured after his patrol car hit a family’s home while responding to a robbery.

Sharon Dean was watching television with her son, Peter Smeatham, and boyfriend Norman Ayre, when the squad car, which was responding to a 999 call, hit their lounge wall.

The incident happened in Horden, County Durham, at 2.20pm yesterday after a robbery at Michelle’s Diner, in nearby Sunderland Road.

The family, who were shaken, but unhurt, were sitting 3ft from the wall.

Ms Dean, 47, said: “A van pulled out and the cop car tried to avoid him, but came into the front window.

“I was a bit shocked, but more concerned about the officer.

He said his leg was hurting, but there was no blood. I am bit shaken. We can replace the wall though; you cannot replace a life.”

Ms Dean called the emergency services and the Great North Air Ambulance landed on a nearby field, but the officer was taken to Sunderland Royal Hospital by road ambulance.

The car was severely damaged.

Ms Dean’s partner, Mr Ayre, 61, said: “There was a loud noise; a bang, and it has knocked the radiator off the wall and knocked the television right back.

“I am surprised the whole house did not come down because the car has come in and bounced straight back out.”

The officer suffered minor injuries and a police investigation into the crash, in Eleventh Street, is under way.

Mr Smeatham said: “The first thing I did was check he was okay. I felt sorry for the copper. He could barely move.

You could tell he had whiplash.”

The officer was responding to a robbery after a man wearing a black hooded top, blue jeans and a hat threatened staff at the diner and fled with the till and the day’s takings.

Mother-of-two Michelle Crombie, 35, who has run the cafe for ten years, said: “There were two girls here at the time and they are okay, but a bit shaken. It is not very nice.

Look at all of the trouble it has caused.”