A car rammed into the U.S. consulate in Shanghai Thursday evening, slightly injuring the driver and a sentry guard on duty, according to Chinese media reports.

The male driver "intended to rush into the U.S. General Consulate in Shanghai," a tweet from the state-run People's Daily newspaper said.

The driver "has been controlled," it added.

Images posted on social media showed a black car which appeared to have mounted the pavement and rammed into barricades next to a sentry box at the consulate, in the city's central Xuhui district.

A Chinese-language report on Caixin website quoted police at the scene as saying the driver was drunk.

The driver, a 35-year-old surnamed Liu from Sanming city in China's eastern Fujian province, has been taken to a police station while the injured guard was taken to hospital, Caixin said.