Spanish police have launched a manhunt for Carles Puidgemont, the Catalan separatist leader after he returned from exile, gave a speech in front of thousands and then disappeared into the crowd.

Mr Puigdemont has been living in Belgium for almost seven years since he fled Spain in October 2017. He left to avoid prison for spearheading an illegal attempt to create an independent Catalonia.

The 61-year-old spoke in Catalan to a crowd of supporters under Barcelona’s L’Arc de Triomf monument on Thursday and was expected to walk to the nearby Catalan parliament to attend a debate on the selection of a new president for the region.

“We’re still here! We’re still here!” Mr Puigdemont said as he criticised what he called Spain’s “ferocious repression” of the separatist movement.

Pro-independence supporters and fellow members of Mr Puigdemont’s Junts party had assembled close to the stage to escort the former Catalan president through the crowds.

But Mr Puigdemont vanished in the melee.

Catalonia’s police force had orders to arrest Mr Puigdemont, who is accused of embezzling public funds in the run-up to the unlawful referendum and subsequent declaration of independence in Oct 2017.

Nine people, including several members of Mr Puigdemont’s Catalan government, spent more than three years in prison for their part in the illegal secession bid. They were then pardoned by the Left-wing government of Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish Prime Minister,  in 2021.

Catalonia’s Mossos d’esquadra police has set up a search operation to try to locate Mr Puigdemont, including checkpoints on major road exits from Barcelona.

Spain’s conservative and Right-wing opposition parties reacted with fury to the latest escape by the former European MP, who has previously been arrested in Germany and Italy – without being extradited to Spain.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the conservative People’s Party, said the events in Barcelona on Thursday morning were “an unbearable humiliation” and accused Mr Sánchez of bearing “ultimate responsibility”.

The hard-Right Vox party described as “a bloody disgrace” that “a coupmonger and fugitive from justice is able to enter Spain without anyone stopping him”.

Catalonia’s parliament is currently debating whether to elect Salvador Illa, an ally of Mr Sánchez, as the region’s new president after his Catalan Socialist Party won the most seats in an election held in May.

Mr Sánchez’s minority Spanish government crucially won the support of Mr Puigdemont after negotiating and approving an amnesty law scrapping criminal procedures against Catalan separatists.

It stated that Mr Puigdemont and others should not face charges if they did not make personal financial gain.

But in a controversial decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the amnesty did not cover the offence of embezzling public funds. It argued that the unlawful use of public money to organise a referendum constituted a personal benefit for Mr Puigdemont.

The former regional leader insists the vote was not illegal and therefore the charges linked to it have no basis.

“A country where amnesty laws do not [mean] amnesty has a democratic problem,” Mr Puigdemont said in his speech before he left the stage and melted into the crowd.