BARCELONA police launched a manhunt today for leading Catalan independence campaigner Carles Puigdemont after he returned to Spain, gave a a speech in the city and then vanished.

A warrant for Mr Puigdemont’s arrest remains outstanding, nearly seven years after he fled to Belgium following an abortive declaration of Calatan independence by the regional parliament.

He had previously announced his intention to be in Spain on the day that Catalonia’s parliament was due to swear in a new president.

Arriving in central Barcelona, he gave a speech today in front of a large crowd of supporters and under the noses of police officers, who made no attempt to detain him.

Addressing the crowd in a park and at times pumping his fist, Mr Puigdemont accused Spanish authorities “a crackdown” on the Catalan separatist movement.

“For the last seven years, we have been persecuted because we wanted to hear the voice of the Catalan people,” he claimed in a speech broadcast live on Spanish television. “They have made being Catalan into something suspicious.

“All people have the right to self-determination.”

Afterwards, Mr Puigdemont entered an adjacent marquee, then rushed out of another exit and jumped into a waiting car that sped away, according to an Associated Press photographer who witnessed his departure.

Catalan police arrested one of their own officers on charges of aiding the getaway, suspecting that Mr Puigdemont had used the officer’s private car, according to the force’s press office.

About three hours after the disappearance, Catalan police called off traffic checks without giving a reason but resumed them after a couple of hours.

Officers initially held back from swooping to arrest Mr Puigdemont out of concern that such action might “cause public disorder,” a police statement said.

Officers tried to stop the fleeing vehicle, but were unable to do so, the statement said, though it added that further arrests were expected.

Mr Puigdemont faces charges of embezzlement for his part in the 2017 attempt to break Catalonia away from the rest of Spain.

As regional president and separatist party leader at the time, he was a key player in the independence referendum, which was outlawed by the central government but went ahead anyway.

Right-wing opposition Popular Party leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo claimed on X that Mr Puigdemont’s reappearance was an “unbearable humiliation” that had damaged Spain’s reputation.