ST. LOUIS — A top city official on Thursday morning sounded alarm bells over a federal judge’s order requiring state courts to consider poverty when setting bail, arguing the rule has already forced the city to release an accused murderer, an accused rapist and an accused gunman.

Then, just hours later, a federal appeals court put the order on hold, giving prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges here a temporary reprieve.

Officials in the 22nd Circuit have been scrambling over the past week to hold last-minute detention hearings for hundreds of defendants. On June 11, U.S. District Judge Audrey Fleissig ruled that St. Louis has failed to comply with rules for setting bail, gave officials a week to hold new detention hearings for inmates in the city’s two jails, and said new arrestees must have a hearing within 48 hours of their arrest.

Inmates can still be held, Fleissig wrote, if they are a danger to the community or if there is no other way to ensure they show up for court.

But city Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards, a former St. Louis circuit judge, said on Thursday that 98% of the inmates in city jails are being held for violent crimes — not traffic violations or misdemeanors — and deserve to be locked up.