Smoke was seen billowing from the Russian consulate in San Francisco under orders to close by the Trump administration.

Consulate staff spent Friday hastily loading items into a minivan, trying to clear things from the building before the Saturday deadline set by US President Donald Trump.

The order to leave the consulate, which is Russia's oldest in the US, is the latest episode in the diplomatic stand-off between Washington DC and Moscow.

Relations between the two have been troubled for some time over the Kremlin's policies towards Ukraine and Syria and, more recently, Russia has been accused of interfering in US elections.

But it was the heavy smoke billowing from a chimney at the consulate that caught the attention of reporters, bystanders and the city's fire department.


Image: Russian consulate staff were given until Saturday to clear out of the building

A spokesman for the San Francisco Fire Department, Mindy Talmadge, said the smoke was apparently from a fire in a fireplace inside the building.

Firefighters had been sent to investigate, she said.

According to an Associated Press reporter at the scene, the firefighters were turned away by consulate officials on arrival.

People from inside the building were heard telling them that there was no problem and staff were burning items in a fireplace, the reporter said.

Ms Talmadge was unable to say what was being burned, especially as temperatures in the city were around 35C at the time.

"It was not unintentional," she added.

"They were burning something in their fireplace."

Image: Russia's San Francisco consulate is being closed

Consul Sergey Petrov was asked about the smoke on Friday but would not comment about that or the closure.

In a statement posted on Facebook, the Russian consulate said it had issued more than 16,000 tourist visas to American citizens last year and that the closure would hurt both countries.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said US "special services" were going to search the consulate along with apartments used by Russian diplomats and their families.

The US State Department would not comment on whether this was true or on the smoke seen from the consulate.

Access to the consulate from Saturday will be only with their permission.