At least 28 others -- nine students, one school attendant, 18 labourers -- who sustained injuries in the accident, have been admitted to Government Medical College and Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College and Hospital at Aurangabad. The condition of two of the students is stated to be serious, doctors said.

Though police officials at Aurangabad stated that identities of all those killed had been confirmed, at the school in Bhandup, authorities would notdisclose the names of the dead, preferring to wait for confirmation.

For the parents of the 92-odd students who went for the trip matters couldn't have been worse. Hanging between hope and despair, hundreds of them thronged the school, some praying, some just silently waiting, some sobbing. Like Sumitra Shinde, sitting in a corner, wondering if her son Ganesh was alive or not. Ganesh's cousin, a sixth standard student of the same school, also could not stop sobbing.

The situation was no different at Aurangabad. The horrifying accident left the students and teachers completely shaken. Ironically, it was the first time a trip had been organised by the school for tenth standard students. An American agency, COSPLAN, had agreed to sponsor it.

The group had left for Aurangabad on Wednesday morning after making an unscheduled overnight halt at Paithan. All the girls had got into one bus, along with 15 boys, while the remaining boys and some staffers boarded the other bus.

The bus carrying the girls wasfollowing the other bus.

Just as the two buses -- moving in tandem -- were negotiating a narrow road, a truck carrying labourers, coming from the opposite direction, tried to get past them. The driver did not realise that it was not one but two buses that he would have to cross.

When the truck hit the bus, ``so deafening was the sound of the impact that the first thing that occured to me was that it was a bomb explosion,'' said Amit Pandurang Mohite. Luckily for him, he had left his seat and was standing somewhere in the middle of the bus when the collision took place.

The dumper cut into the right side of the bus, hitting the window seats, all of which were occupied by girls. Pieces of skulls and limbs flew around and window panes turned into missiles piercing students' bodies, Mohite said. Ironically, the girls had insisted upon having the window seats for themselves, when they got into the bus. After a brief argument, the boys conceded.

Superintendent of Police (Rural), who reached the spot within15 minutes of the accident, said all he could see around the bus were pieces of flesh and blood. So shaken were the students and teachers by the horrifying experience that even three hours after the accident, no one could gather the strength to go and identify the bodies in the mortuary at the Government Medical College and Hospital. The only way left was to take a roll-call. And when Vidyadhar Sawant, a teacher, called out the names of his students, only silence answered eight times. The names of those absent would not come up in the attendance registers again.

Finally, Mohite agreed to have a look at the mutilated bodies of his schoolmates, helped by one of his teachers. With tears in his eyes, he bowed down to have a close look at each of the faces, now swollen and covered in blood. ``This is Alka Pandurang Waghe, yes confirmed, it is her,'' Amit said as he began his task. Thereafter he managed to identify one Seema Vasant Desai and Sapna Vasant Chaughule, but then had to ask for help from other girlstudents since the bodies were beyond recognition. Sarika Suresh Parnab and Reshma Rajaram Wavaley were later able to identify Ujwala Ashok Gawande, Archana Narhari Nirbhawane, Sarika Sudhakar Rasam, Pravina Tanaji Tamboli, and Pinki Manohar Mhatre and their teacher, Chitra Vinayak Tamahane.

And while the names were being written down in Aurangabad, at Bhandup hundreds of parents ran behind police officials, teachers and other school authorities, hoping to get some tiny detail of the accident. The school received the news of the accident at around 11.30 am, and immediately afterwards decided to suspend classes. As parents began to gather, the school authorities put up a board saying that two children and one teacher were hurt in the accident. That was all the news that parents, relatives and neighbours had for almost two hours. No news of deaths, no names.

Later, at around 3 pm, local corporator Sardar Tara Singh came to the school. He tried to mollify the crowd saying that around 11 had been injured. Bythen, the news of deaths had come in. But saying ``we cannot manage the mob,'' the authorities kept it to themselves. Half-an-hour later Tara Singh made another speech. ``We have made arrangements for post-mortems at Rajawadi Hospital,'' he said drawing audible gasps from his audience. Realising that some students had been killed -- for the first time -- several parents could be seen bursting into tears.

Chaos prevailed after that. One parent fainted, and doctors rushed in to help her. Five doctors were present in the premises to tackle any eventuality.

Later, Tara Singh made another cryptic announcement: The bus that met with the accident was carrying only girls. Though it was only partly true, the statement consoled a lot of parents, several of whom then left the premises.

By the end of the day, announcements were made that the bodies would come in early tomorrow morning. The surviving children were expected back late tonight. Some parents left, while others stayed back. School authorities said theyhad made arrangements for the parents to stay back in the school for the night.

Meanwhile, Shivaji Bodke, city deputy police commissioner (zone 6), said a control room had been set up in the school campus by the Bhandup police to give information to parents. Also, arrangements were made for some of the parents to go to Aurangabad by air. They were received at Aurganabad by the local police and taken to the hospital.