A white South Carolina police officer has been charged with murder after he shot dead a black man who appeared to be fleeing from him.

North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey said investigators charged 33-year-old policeman Michael Slager after video emerged of the shooting in South Carolina.

The footage appears to show Slager firing eight shots at 50-year-old Walter Lamer Scott, who was running away at the time.

The altercation took place on Saturday and began when Mr Scott was pulled over for a traffic stop.

The video shows the two men engaged in a brief scuffle before Mr Scott appears to run away.

The officer is seen with his weapon raised before firing at the fleeing man. Scott falls face-first to the ground.

Authorities say the officer opened fire after earlier striking Mr Scott with a stun gun.

Mr Summey told a news conference: "He (Slager) will be charged with murder.

"That`s not something that we like to hear, or like to say. But it goes to say how we work as a community.

"When you`re wrong, you`re wrong. If you make a bad decision, I don`t care if you`re behind the shield or just a citizen on the street, you have to live by that decision."

He added: "We as a city want the (victim`s) family to know that our hearts and our thoughts are with them."

Speaking at a press conference early today, the victim`s brother Anthony Scott said: "We can`t get my brother back and my family is in deep mourning for that.

"But, through the process, justice has been served. I don`t think that all police officers are bad cops, but there are some bad ones out there.

"I don`t want to see anyone get shot down the way my brother got shot down."

North Charleston Police say Slager was arrested by officers of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also launched an investigation into the shooting, which comes after a series of police killings of unarmed black men.

The deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner on Staten Island have both led to nationwide protests.

North Charleston Police Chief Eddie Driggers confirmed that Mr Scott was shot as he was running away from the officer.

"I have been around this police department a long time and all the officers on this force, the men and women, are like my children," he said.

"So you tell me how a father would react seeing his child do something? I`ll let you answer that yourself."

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