For 50-year-old Sabira Khatoon it was a miraculous Monday, as she thinks no one but Allah saved her from drowning after the bus she was travelling in plunged into a pond killing at least 23 people.

"Allah saved me. He gave me a new lease of life. It is unbelievable that I am still alive. My body trembles the moment I remember the horror. When the bus leaned left, it was only words like Allah and Bhagwan that reverberated inside the bus. Soon we forgot everything. Cries could be heard only for a few seconds. I was numb. Fear of death that stalked me disappeared. We were in deep waters," she said.

Sabira is one of the survivors of the tragic Basaith bus accident that occurred on Monday.

"I boarded the bus from Basaith Chowk, where I had gone to withdraw money from a bank. But I couldn't. I hurriedly took the bus to return to my village Sanhuli. The bus was packed, so I was standing near the exit. When the bus plummeted, I was thrown in the pond. Since I know swimming, I could make it to the shore. I lost my spectacles and the bank passbook," Sabira said.

On what led to such a mishap, she said, to save a cyclist the bus swerved left and lost control.

"More than 40 passengers were sitting and half-a-dozen passengers were standing. Some of the standing passengers, including my distant relative Sameena Khatoon, were able to swim across," she added.

There is, however, confusion over the death toll, as villagers claimed more than 40 bodies were fished out of the pond. A primary schoolteacher, Dev Chandra Chaudhary of Chanpur village, said around 50 bodies were recovered. He said the 30-year-old cyclist whom the bus driver wanted to save, was killed on the spot. Anju Devi, a JDU leader and the councillor of ward number 10 of Basaith, said 35 bodies were recovered. She added that locals fished out around a dozen bodies from the pond and relatives of these victims took away the bodies before the administration could start the rescue operation.

Madhubani district magistrate Girivar Dayal, however, said the toll stands at 23.

"There is no confusion at all. The rescue operation is over. The driver and the helper of the ill-fated bus are in police custody and they are being grilled. Compensation to the kin of the 23 victims has been handed out," the DM said.

The Madhubani DM, however, added: "The driver and the conductor of the bus told there were only 32 passengers in the bus. According to us, 23 died and five swam to safety. Four got injured in the accident out of which three were released from the hospital on Tuesday and one is undergoing treatment," he said.

Reacting to the possibility of relatives taking away bodies, the DM said the district administration accepted seven such death claims on Monday evening when relatives came with the bodies for post-mortem. "We kept waiting for such claimants till Tuesday evening. After nobody turned up it became clearer that only 23 died in the accident," Dayal added.

Congress leader and Benipatti MLA Bhavna Jha camped at the accident site saying the rescue work was not done seriously. "There was some carelessness. So people got enraged and pelted stones on Monday. As far as I know, 32 bodies were recovered," the MLA said.