A car crashed into the gate of the Russian embassy in the Romanian capital early on Wednesday, bursting into flames and killing the driver, police said.

The saloon car rammed into the gate at about 6am but did not enter the embassy compound in Bucharest.

Video showed the car engulfed in flames as security personnel ran through the area.

According to police, firefighters put the fire out but the driver died at the scene.

There was no immediate information on a possible motive or other details.

The Russian embassy said no employees were injured, and expressed condolences to the family of the driver.

A statement said: “We must state with regret that whatever the motives of the driver, there is no doubt that he committed this act under the influence of an explosion of anti-Russian hysteria in connection with a staged provocation in the city of Bucha.”

Romania, which shares a long land border with Ukraine, has taken in more than 600,000 refugees since Russia invaded its neighbour.

Since the war started on February 24, protesters have gathered outside Russia’s embassy in Bucharest to call for an end to the Russian aggression.

On Tuesday, Romania expelled 10 diplomats from the embassy amid a string of expulsions of Russian officials across the 27-nation European Union.

Romania’s Foreign Ministry said the actions of 10 embassy workers “contravene the provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relationships”.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed Romania’s parliament on Monday, when he labelled the murders of civilians in the town of Bucha a war crime and called for tougher sanctions against Russia.

Before his address, Romania’s president of the Chamber of Deputies, Marcel Ciolacu, said the “horrible images” that emerged after Russian troops withdrew from Bucha have “overwhelmed and revolted us all”.