'I'm trying to save his life': Tearful Swedish student REFUSES to sit down on plane to stop the man behind her being deported to Afghanistan - risking jail as she forces the flight to be cancelled

A tearful student activist bought a plane ticket and refused to take her seat to prevent an asylum seeker from being sent back to Afghanistan.

Elin Ersson, 22, launched her solo protest onboard the aircraft, telling cabin crew she wouldn't sit down until the man facing deportation was removed from the plane.

She won sympathy from fellow passengers during a tense standoff, but enraged some, including a man who appeared to be English and tried to snatch her phone as she live-streamed the ordeal on Facebook.

An emotional Ms Ersson - called a "hero" on social media - defiantly told fellow travellers as she delayed the flight: "It is not right to send people to hell ... What is more important? A life or your time?"

While everyone else was seated, she said the 52-year-old man would face death if he was returned to his homeland, adding: “I don’t want a man’s life to be taken away just because you don't want to miss your flight."

“I am not going to sit down until the person is off the plane.”

Ms Ersson bought a ticket for the flight from Gothenburg, Sweden to Istanbul, Turkey after finding out that the asylum seeker was being deported on the plane.

She stopped the man from being kicked out of Sweden - albeit temporarily, it appears - but she could be jailed or fined over Monday's protest.

The Gothenburg University student has won praise for her actions, but has also attracted criticism for interrupting the deportation and delaying the flight. Her video has been viewed more than two million times on Facebook.

In the footage, she reminded flight attendants - who ordered her to sit down - and passengers that as long as she remained on her feet the plane couldn't leave its gate.

She added: "I am doing what I can to save a person’s life. All I want to do is stop the deportation and then I will comply with the rules here. This is all perfectly legal and I have not committed a crime.”

At one point, an angry man, who appeared to be English, tried to grab her mobile phone.

She told him: “What is more important? A life or your time? I want him to get off the plane because he is not safe in Afghanistan.

"I am trying to change my country’s rules, I don’t like them. It is not right to send people to hell.”

Ms Ersson said the Afghan man would "most likely get killed" in his homeland, as other passengers joined the protest.

Airline and airport officials decided not to use force to eject the woman and the standoff continued until the asylum seeker was taken off the plane, along with officers who were escorting him, amid a round of applause.

Ms Ersson then left the plane and went back inside the terminal after accomplishing what she had set out to do.

Flight tracking websites show that the delayed flight arrived almost two hours behind schedule at Istanbul Atatürk Airport.

In Istanbul, the man was due to be placed on a flight to Kabul.

The man, whose name wasn't revealed, remains in custody in Sweden, where authorities have said he will deported at a later date, Deutsche Welle reported.

Details about his case - including why he wasn't allowed to remain in the Scandinavian country - have not been reported.

But she could be fined or jailed for up to six months for disobeying the crew's orders, if criminal proceedings are launched.

Hans Uhrus, a spokesman for Swedavia, which runs Gothenburg's Landvetter Airport, told Samtiden that it was unclear whether the woman would be charged.

He added: "As a passenger, you have to obey what the pilot tells you to do, otherwise you cannot get on the plane."

Ms Ersson's protest became international news and she was inundated with praise.

Positive comments on Facebook appeared to far outnumber those with criticism.

One admirer wrote: "This world needs more people like you! You are a hero! And I hope that people like you who put humanity first and break the rules for it are the future of this world!"

Another added: "Thank you for your act of courage and showing empathy towards a fellow human being."

And one wrote: "I wish more of us had the courage to do what is right and treat our neighbors the way we would want to be treated."