A Dubai-based technology expert followed a suicide bomber into a UN building just seconds before he was blown up, video footage has shown.

The suicide bomber is seen entering the UN building in Islamabad disguised as a police officer, as Botan Al-Hayawi follows just steps behind.

The footage, released by the UN, shows the bomber open the main door as UN worker Al-Hayawi unwittingly followed him in while the door was still open.

Seconds later, there is a massive explosion that kills Al-Hayawi and four other workers at the UN World Food Programme in the Pakistan capital. The suicide bomber was also killed in the October 5 attack.

Al-Hayawi, a Kurdish Iraqi, had been living in the Springs in Dubai with his wife and three children and had travelled to Islamabad to upgrade a communications system.

The attack came just months after Botan expressed his fears about a suicide attack in an online diary.

He noted that a UN co-worker left Lahore just before a devastating suicide bombing attack.

“Two policemen killed and eight injured. It seems he left at the right time. Lucky man [touch wood],” he wrote.

Dubai-based UN colleagues yesterday described him as a very kind-hearted and generous man who carried out life-saving work for the World Food Programme (WFP) with little fuss.

A colleague said he was a great worker and loving family man.

“He was an extremely nice person who never sought to be the centre of attention. He just did a great job,” he said. He had travelled all over the world with a rapid-response team to set up communications networks for UN emergency relief workers. His two oldest children, an 11-year-old boy and a nine-year-old girl, were taken out of Dubai schools last week as the family prepared to return to Iraq, along with their mother and ten-month-old baby brother.

The World Food Programme Dubai operation flew them back to their home country this week as it continued to help three other blast victims who were flown to Dubai for treatment.

One Pakistani man lost his left eye in the attack and is being treated at Dubai’s Neurospinal Hospital for severe leg injuries and loss of hearing in one ear.

The WFP also hurried to fly family members into Dubai to visit the injured.

Meanwhile, the UAE government yesterday confirmed that it has taken in about 27 UN workers from Kabul following Wednesday’s devastating suicide attack on a UN guesthouse.

Two Taliban gunmen stormed the house, killing 11 people, eight of them UN foreign staff.

The UAE ambassador to the UN said  the UAE flew the 27 into the country after granting them urgent entry visas.

He added that the UAE is helping the UN to issue passports to allow the Kabul staff to return home shortly.