The historic South Carolina church where a white gunman murdered nine African Americans held its first service since the attack, celebrating the lives of those killed.

Hundreds of congregants, many tearful, packed the Emanuel African American Episcopal Church for the Sunday service.

It was led by a visiting clergyman because the congregation’s pastor was among those killed by a white supremacist said to have been trying to ignite a race war.

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Celebrants at Emanuel AME church said the accused gunman – 21-year-old Dylann Roof – had failed miserably in his quest to break their spirit of love and faith.

“There they were in the house of the Lord, studying your word, praying with one another,” visiting minister Reverend John Gillison said.

“But the Devil also entered. And the Devil was trying to take charge.

“Thanks be to God, hallelujah, that the Devil cannot take control of your people. And the Devil cannot take control of your church.”

A website allegedly created by Roof was found by police, in which he wrote a 2500 word racist screed against African Americans and appeared in photos with guns and burning the US flag.

Roof went on the run after the shooting and was caught by police a day later in neighbouring North Carolina.

He is in solitary confinement in jail charged with nine counts of murder.

Authorities are treating the shooting as a hate crime and also investigating it as possible act of domestic terrorism.

Roof’s arrest warrant alleges he shot six women and three men in the church, with the victims ranging in age from 26 to 87, and that he then stood over a survivor to make a “racially inflammatory” statement.

On Friday, he appeared via video link in court and heard relatives of the dead offer forgiveness.

Last week, US President Barack Obama expressed great “sadness and anger” over the fatal Charleston church shooting, using the occasion to address the need for tighter gun control.

“Now is the time for mourning and for healing, but let’s be clear – at some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries,” Mr Obama said.

“It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency. And it is in our power to do something about it.”

– with AAP