A former regional newspaper reporter has told how he helped rescue people from the carnage of Tuesday's bomb attack on the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad.

Grant Hodgson, a former education correspondent for The Argus in Brighton, has described how he battled to haul bleeding, disoriented casualties from the wrecked building following the explosion which killed 20 and injured hundreds.

The 33-year-old had gathered with other journalists for a press conference at the Canal Hotel, being used by the UN, when the bomb went off in what is thought to have been a suicide attack.

As rubble fell all around him and wounded victims staggered into the press room, Grant took the hands of some of the injured to help lead them out of the crumbling building and carried seven to safety over his shoulders.

US Army medics were treating casualties outside the hotel and Grant helped fill water bottles to give to choking UN workers.

He said: "I was offered treatment but my gashed left leg was barely an injury compared with the mayhem all around me."

He also described how security at the UN building had appeared lax, making the base vulnerable to terrorist attack.

He said: "When I went into the UN no one searched me, no one searched the bag I was carrying.

"If I'd wanted to get a bomb in there I wouldn't have had a problem."

Grant, who worked for The Argus from 1997 to 1999, now works for news agency Kent News and Pictures and had gone to the hotel for a press briefing from UN mines expert Martin Barber on the dangers of unexploded ordnance.

He has been in Iraq since May 30 and, despite the horror of the blast, intends to remain in Baghdad.