SAN SALVADOR, July 4 (Reuters) - At least 15 people died and 28 others were missing after intense rains in El Salvador, which swept a passenger bus into a river on the edge of the capital, rescue workers said on Friday.

Seven of the dead were killed when their bus was pulled into a river on the impoverished outskirts of San Salvador on Thursday night as it tried to drive through a flooded road crossing.

The force of the water smashed the bus, which was carrying evangelists back from church, into a bridge and split it in two.

"I was the only one able to jump out," said 16-year-old Fabricio Hernandez, one of 31 people on the bus, including three children. Twenty-three bus passengers are still missing.

Interior Minister and civil protection agency head Juan Miguel Bolanos said rescuers were trawling the river looking for more survivors. The bus had been pulled out of the river.

Separately, eight people including a young girl drowned in a swollen river in central El Salvador and five were missing after unexpected rains across the small Central American country.

(Reporting by Alberto Barrera, Editing by Sandra Maler)

AlertNet news is provided by