Australia, insurance, car, home, live, holidays

An honour guard from the South Carolina Highway patrol lowers the Confederate battle flag as it is removed from the Capitol grounds in Columbia,South Carolina.Credit:AP

South Carolina Republican Governor Nikki Haley,who pushed for the state legislature to enact a law making it possible to remove the flag,was among those watching its departure from its place just yards from the State House entrance.

Earlier,she called it a great day for the state in an interview with NBC'sTodaytelevision show.

"I'm thinking of those nine people today,"Haley said,referring to the nine men and women gunned down at Charleston's African Methodist Episcopal church.

Also among those watching the flag's lowering was Charleston Mayor Joe Riley,who in 2000 led a 190km march from his city to Columbia to protest the flag.

Symbol of hate ... The Confederate battle flag is removed from the Capitol grounds in Columbia,South Carolina.Credit:AP

"Today,at long last,this has been done,"he said in a statement.

Thewhite man charged in the killings,21-year-old Dylann Roof,appeared in photographs posing with a Confederate flag that surfaced on a website bearing a racist manifesto. The image spurred politicians and leading national retailers to pull the flag from display.

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley speaks during a ceremony where she signed a bill to remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds more than 50 years after the rebel banner was raised to protest the civil rights movement.Credit:AP

In South Carolina,the first state to secede during the 1861-1865 US Civil War,this week's debate in the state legislature brought an emotional closure to a symbol long divisive in the state.

The Confederate flag waved atop the state capitol from 1961 to 2000,when it was moved to a Confederate war memorial near the State House entrance.

Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter,left,reacts with former South Carolina Governor David Beasley after a ceremony where Governor Nikki Haley signed a bill to remove the Confederate flag.Credit:AP

"My heart is overjoyed. I can feel the togetherness,"said Tenetha Hall,of Newberry,South Carolina,who said she took a day off work to drive an hour to Columbia to watch the flag come down."I'm so glad my children and six grandchildren will get to see this history."

Civil War re-enactor Bobby Dawson stood quietly in gray wool pants and a long-sleeved shirt with the wool coat of the Confederate Army's 101st South Carolina Regiment. He said he had an ancestor who fought on both sides of the Civil War.

Maria Calef,of Columbia,South Carolina,waves a sign as she celebrates in front of the South Carolina statehouse.Credit:AP

"This brings joy to some people,a solemn occasion to others,"Dawson said.

Reuters