Britons in Baghdad hotel blast

The men are working with NBC camera crews to advise on security

Two British security advisers led people to safety after a bomb blast near a hotel in Baghdad.

The men were sleeping in the Aike Hotel, where the US NBC television network has offices, when the device exploded a metre from its outer wall.

A Somalian night porter was killed and a Canadian sound technician for NBC suffered minor injuries to his arm in the attack on Thursday.

Paul Rees, managing director of Centurion Risk Assessment Services in Andover, Hampshire, said his staff were working in the Iraqi capital for NBC, travelling with camera crews to advise on security.

'Everybody out'

Mr Rees said: "They contacted me as soon they could after they mustered everyone outside and checked everyone off.

"They got everybody out through the emergency process, but there was one guy missing - the night porter.

"Apparently the blast caused lots of fragmentation."

Mr Rees declined to name the men because of the sensitive nature of their work.

About 20 people were in the hotel, including about a dozen NBC staff, when the bomb went off at 0655 local time (0355 GMT).

It comes a day after an explosion ripped through a cinema in the northern city of Mosul, killing two people and injuring up to 20 others.