Demonstrators in Barcelona clashed with police on Sunday, after former Catalan president Carlos Puigdemont was taken into custody by German police. Police said three protesters were arrested and 50 suffered minor injuries in the scuffles.

They were part of a wave of discontent that brought tens of thousands of Catalans, many wearing yellow in support of jailed separatist leaders, out onto the streets, chanting "Puigdemont, our president" and "freedom for political prisoners.

Spain's Supreme Court ruled on Friday that 25 Catalan leaders would be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobeying the state and reactivated international arrest warrants for Puigdemont and four other politicians who went into self-imposed exile last year for their roles in an independence vote that the Spanish government declared illegal.

German police arrested Puigdemont on Sunday in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein on a European arrest warrant issued by Spain. The Spanish Supreme Court had issued an international arrest warrant against Puigdemont last year but withdrew it in December to avoid the risk of Belgian authorities granting him asylum.

In a statement, German police said Puigdemont was detained near a section of the A7 highway, which cuts through the state from the city of Flensburg near the Danish border. Puigdemont had been in Finland to meet lawmakers and attend a conference as part of a campaign to raise the profile of the Catalan independence movement in Europe.