Eight police officers arrested after video shows death ofMido Macia dragged by police van

EIGHT South African police involved in the death of a man dragged by a police vehicle have been arrested for murder. Warning: Disturbing video

EIGHT South African police officers have been arrested on suspicion of murder over the death of a Mozambican taxi driver who was dragged through the streets tied to a police van, prompting an international outcry.

"Eight policemen have been arrested by IPID at Benoni police station," Moses Dlamini, spokesman for the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, told AFP today.

The group will appear in court on Tuesday (AEST).

Scroll down for the video. Warning: Images may disturb some viewers

The arrests come just hours after police chief Riah Phiyega announced the eight officers had been disarmed and suspended for "callous and unacceptable behaviour" and the station commander had been removed from his post pending investigation.

Twenty-seven-year-old Mozambican taxi driver Mido Macia was filmed being manhandled, handcuffed to the back of a police van and dragged hundreds of metres to the Daveyton police station, east of Johannesburg, on Tuesday.

Just over two hours later he was found dead in custody.

A post mortem examination found he died from head injuries and internal bleeding.

South African President Jacob Zuma on Thursday condemned the killing as "horrific, disturbing and unacceptable".

South Africa death

Footage of the incident spread quickly online and sent shockwaves through the country, shining a spotlight yet again on the conduct of South Africa's much maligned police force.

The footage shows a large crowd of horrified bystanders looking on, some warning police they were being filmed. "Hey! Hey! Why are you hitting him?" one person in the crowd can be heard shouting in Zulu.

Macia, lying on his back, can be seen kicking and struggling to avoid the tarmac.

Macia had moved to South Africa as 10-year-old boy when his parents travelled to work on the mines, said the Mozambican ambassador to South Africa, Fernando Fazenda, who has appointed a lawyer to represent the family.

He came from the town of Macia some 160km north of the capital Maputo. His wife and son had been on holiday in Mozambique and are returning to South Africa.

South Africa death