A US police officer has been fired after video showing him throwing a female student across a classroom was shared widely on the internet.

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said that Senior Deputy Ben Fields "did not follow proper procedure".

He was a school resource officer at the school in South Carolina.

The incident filmed by a fellow student and published on the internet, prompted the hashtag #AssaultAtSpringValleyHigh to circulate on Twitter and an outcry from various civil rights and parents' groups.

He "should not have thrown a student - he could have done a lot of things he was trained to do, he was not trained to throw a student", Sheriff Lott said.

The incident occurred at the Spring Valley High School in Columbia, witnesses said, when the unnamed African-American student refused to put away her mobile phone and then refused to leave the classroom.

The officer was then summoned and asked her to leave again. She refused, and he told her she was under arrest.

Video then shows the officer violently knocking the student down and pulling her across the floor.

Lott said he had received expressions of support for the officer, who had been at the school seven years, from some parents and school officials. Officer Fields had received a "Culture of Excellence" award last year by an elementary school where he was also assigned.

But Sheriff Lott said the officer had "lost control" and had not dealt with this incident correctly.

"That is not a proper technique and should not be used in law enforcement. And based on that, that is a violation of our policy and approximately 20 minutes ago Officer Ben Fields was terminated from the Richland County Sheriff's Department."

He said complaints had been made about Officer Fields during his time at the school - some had been upheld and some had not.