Only two vehicles were on the overpass at the time. Five people in the vehicles were taken to Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, as were a Union Pacific train conductor and an engineer. All seven had been released by Saturday afternoon, hospital spokeswoman Felecia Blanton said.

"You're driving down the road and the next thing you know the bridge is not there. ... It could have been really bad," Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter said.

The crash derailed about two dozen rail cars hauling scrap metal, automobiles and auto parts, tossing them into the overpass' support columns. The highway was shut down for about 8 miles from Scott City to Chaffee.

The overpass was about 15 years old and in good condition but just couldn't withstand the impact from the rail cars, Walter said.

Two 40-foot sections of the overpass buckled while two cars were on the roadway, sending the cars into the edges of the collapsed sections. A diesel fire also broke out in one of the locomotives after the collision, but was quickly extinguished, Walter said.

When Blanton heard about the crash, she immediately went online and saw video footage of the scene and was bracing for the worst, Blanton said. She said it was "a real blessing" that the injuries were relatively minor, the most serious being a fracture.

"If you look at the pictures, they're very dramatic, and there are no serious injuries," she said. "So it's amazing."

Walter said Deputy Justin Wooten was among the first at the scene and pulled the two Union Pacific employees out of the wrecked engine, which became lodged next to the train's second engine. That engine began burning after the crash.

"We're very fortunate he was there," Walter said. He said all seven people injured were already out of the wreckage when he arrived about 15 minutes after the crash was reported.

"People were talking; they were coherent. They understood what was happening," Walter said.

The cars on the overpass "took a really bad hit" when they collided with the bridge sections, but "they stayed on all four tires and they just hit and landed and that was it," he said.

The accident came more than a week after a commuter train derailment in Connecticut that injured 70 people and disrupted service for days. That accident involved a railroad used by tens of thousands of commuters north of New York City.

In Washington state this past week, a bridge collapsed when a truck driver's load bumped against the steel framework.

NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt said while the investigations into both collapses are in the early stages "there is no similarity" between the Missouri accident and the bridge collapse in Washington, which sent two vehicles and three people falling into the chilly water.

He noted that the Missouri bridge was rated "good" after it was last inspected in February.

"This was not because of any lack of integrity of the bridge in southeast Missouri, but because of a train that derailed and had a bunch of rail cars slamming around, which knocked down a pier, which allowed the bridge to collapse," he said.

"If you just look at the facts, there is no relationship other than some external object caused each of these bridges" to collapse, he added.

The Union Pacific train involved in the collision was carrying primarily automobiles or auto parts from Illinois to Texas, said UP spokeswoman Calli Hite. She said about a dozen UP railcars derailed.

Hite said there was no estimate yet on the amount of damage to the roadway or the rail cars.

BNSF spokesman Andy Williams said about 12 cars on the 75-car BNSF train derailed. The BNSF crew was not hurt.

Sumwalt said NTSB investigation will include routine testing of railroad employees for drugs and alcohol, testing the track and nearby rail signals and reviewing video footage from the front of the train in an effort to determine the likely cause. The NTSB will also review the bridge's design.

Authorities were searching for at least two other people — one who went missing after being trapped in another car and a teenage boy who was swept away while trying to cross the swollen Cibolow Creek in suburban Schertz.

The Fire Department conducted more than 235 rescues across the city, some by inflatable boats, authorities said. They continued their search into the evening.

"We'll be out there as long as daylight permits and again in the morning if the water recedes," San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said, adding that going into floodwaters was more dangerous for firefighters than entering a burning building.

By nightfall, water still pooled in ditches and underpasses. Several roadways were closed, including a major highway that links the suburbs and the city.

But even in low-lying neighborhoods along Commerce Street east of downtown — a faded stretch of clapboard houses and beauty parlors — yards were clear. In the tourist district around the River Walk, the streets were thick with weekend revelers.

While the water in some homes rose 4 feet high, according to Bove, most residents experienced the floods primarily as a major traffic hassle. Karen Herring, 50, who spent the day volunteering at a fitness contest at the AT&T Center, said participants complained of three-hour drives across town.

Brent Rose, 39, a law enforcement officer who drove in for the contest from the semi-rural northern suburbs, said the damage extended beyond the city.

"We had some fences rolled over by the water," Rose said. "Some farm animals went astray. But not a big deal."

In the city, even a municipal bus was swept away, but firefighters on a boat were able to rescue the three passengers and driver, public transit spokeswoman Priscilla Ingle said. Nobody was injured.

The San Antonio International Airport by Saturday afternoon had recorded 9.87 inches of rain since midnight, causing nearly all streams and rivers to experience extraordinary flooding. The highest amount of rainfall recorded since midnight was 15.5 inches at Olmos Creek at Dresden Drive.

Mayor Julian Castro urged residents not to drive.

"We have had too many folks who continue to ignore low-water warnings," Castro said at a Saturday afternoon news conference.

A flash flood warning was issued for nearly two dozen counties, with up to 4 inches of rainfall forecast overnight.

A flood warning remained for Leon Creek at Interstate 35, where the level was 27.1 feet and was expected to peak at 29 feet Saturday night — nearly twice the flood stage of 15 feet, according to the National Weather Service. The San Antonio River about 20 miles southeast of the city, near Elmendorf, was expected to peak at 62 feet by Sunday morning, well above the flood stage of 35 feet.

The National Weather Service compared the flooding to the storm of October 1998, when 30 inches of rain fell in a two-day period. In that flood, the Guadalupe and San Antonio River basins overflowed, leaving more than 30 people dead, according to the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority.

Due to that history, Hinojosa said, residents were prepared, despite the storm's pace.

"We've been through floods before," he said.

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Associated Press writers Angela K. Brown in Fort Worth and Danny Robbins in Dallas contributed to this report.

On Wednesday, British soldier Lee Rigby, 25, was viciously stabbed on a London street in broad daylight in a suspected terrorist attack that has raised fears of potential copycat strikes.

The French soldier was on a group patrol as part of a national protection program when he was attacked from behind, prosecutor Robert Gelli told Europe 1 radio. The assailant did not say a word, Gelli said.

"There are elements — the sudden violence of the attack — that could lead one to believe there might be a comparison with what happened in London," Interior Minister Manuel Valls told France 2 television. "But at this point, honestly, let us be prudent."

Rigby was attacked while walking outside the Royal Artillery Barracks in the Woolwich area of south London.

The gruesome scene was recorded on witnesses' cellphones, and a video emerged in which one of the two suspects — his hands bloodied — boasted of their exploits and warned of more violence as the soldier lay on the ground. Holding bloody knives and a meat cleaver, the suspects waited for police, who shot them in the legs, witnesses said.

In the video, one of the suspects declared, "We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you ... We must fight them as they fight us."

Two Muslim hard-liners have identified that suspect as Michael Adebolajo, a Christian who converted to Islam and attended several London demonstrations organized by banned British radical group al-Muhajiroun.

French security forces have been on heightened alert since their country launched a military intervention in the African nation of Mali in January to regain territory seized by Islamic radicals. British Prime Minister David Cameron was himself in Paris meeting with Hollande when he first received word of the London attack.

Last year, three French paratroopers were killed by a man police described as a French-born Islamic extremist who then went on to strike a Jewish school in the south of France, killing four more people.

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Associated Press Writer Sylvia Hui in London contributed to this report.

"As it would with any such allegation, regardless of its credibility, IAB is investigating it," said the NYPD's chief spokesman, Paul Browne, referring to the internal affairs bureau.

The Twitter handle used to make the sexual assault allegations Saturday does not appear to be verified by the social network— but Bynes' friend, former Hollywood publicist Jonathan Jaxson, said Saturday the tweet was made from Bynes' account. Twitter did not immediately return a request for comment.

In court on Friday, the former "Hairspray" star made no mention of the sexual assault allegations, though she did complain of illegal entry to her apartment. She's been charged with reckless endangerment, attempted tampering with evidence and unlawful possession of marijuana.

A law enforcement official who spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because of an ongoing investigation said the building manager was with officers at Bynes' apartment when they arrived Thursday night. The official said officers were kept waiting approximately five minutes before she opened the door to them. The same official said the building manager told internal affair investigators nothing untoward happened.

Bynes was released by Chief New York County Judge Neil Ross on her own recognizance because, Ross said, he did not believe her to be a flight risk. But in releasing her, Ross also issued a stern warning to Bynes, telling her not to get rearrested or miss any court dates. She's due back in court on July 9.

Attempts to reach Bynes' arraignment lawyer were unsuccessful Saturday evening.

Bynes rose to fame starring in Nickelodeon's "All That" and has also starred in several films, including 2010's "Easy A." But she has been in the news more recently because of several scrapes with the law and bizarre public behavior.

Bynes was arrested Thursday night after building officials called police to complain she was rolling a joint and smoking pot in the lobby. The officers went to her apartment where they saw heavy smoke and a bong sitting on the kitchen counter. They said she tossed the bong out the window in front of them, prosecutors said Friday.

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Associated Press writer Colleen Long contributed to this report.