The video, released by police on Friday, gave a rare look at a suicide bomber’s last moments and the immediate aftermath of a devastating attack.

In the footage, the bomber, wearing a yellow sari and a white shawl, calmly walked into a small waiting room at the Colombo offices of Social Services Minister Douglas Devananda on Wednesday, the day he set aside to hear complaints from the public.

The woman, identified by police as 24-year-old Sujatha Vagawanam, sat down in front of a desk and answered questions from Devananda’s 72-year-old aide Steven Peiris.

As the two spoke, Peiris was repeatedly interrupted by other officials sitting nearby or walking past.
After nearly a minute and a half, he began gesturing for her to sit down in a nearby cluster of white plastic chairs, apparently to await a security check. She then stood up facing Peiris, reached her right hand to her right shoulder to grab something and exploded.

Peiris and the bomber, both of whom were killed, flew backward.

The others in the room scrambled in all directions, some falling over their chairs in their haste to escape as a cloud of smoke hung in the air.

 “She thought she was getting caught, so she exploded her bomb,” said Devananda, the target of the attack.