Protesters who took to the streets in Austria to demonstrate against the Covid-19 lockdown say they’ve been forced into action because leaders “won’t listen”, with people only allowed to leave their homes for groceries, work and exercise.

The streets of typically bustling Vienna were deserted on Monday morning with the Christmas market closed along with non-essential shops, cafes and restaurants.

Residents were a mixture of angry, scared and frustrated, CNN reporter Salma Abdelaziz told i from the capital on Monday as the lockdown began.

She said there was a “sense of despondence” over economic opportunities lost for the second holiday season in a row and vaccination centres “had long queues in front of them” as people rushed to get jabbed.

Thomas, 33, a law student from the southern Austrian region of Carinthia, drove three hours to protest in Vienna.

“We have to take it to the street because Parliament won’t listen to us,” he told CNN. “It’s the vaccine mandate and the lockdown. Austria has already had three lockdowns.

“We are a bit scared the whole economy will crash. And the vaccine mandate is not very good either… I don’t think my employer has a right to know my medical status.”

One resident waiting to get a vaccination said: “I gave into the government’s blackmail, I didn’t want to get vaccinated now, I wanted to wait for another vaccine but the government had other plans for me.”

The 20-day national lockdown, which took effect on Monday, was announced along with plans to make Austria the first country in Europe to mandate all eligible people to be vaccinated from 1 February.

An estimated 40,000 people took to the streets of Vienna over the weekend to protest against what some claimed was a “dictatorship”, with some reportedly burning masks and throwing fireworks and bottles at police, who responded with pepper spray.

Demonstrators waving placards with slogans like “stop discrimination”, “think for yourself and act together”, and “vaccinating children is a crime” rallied in Heroes’ Square in front of the Hofburg, the former imperial palace.

The protest was led by the far-right Freedom Party – the third biggest in parliament – but according to Abdelaziz there was a “much broader cross-section” of people who were unhappy about the new lockdown.

She said that the streets were not “completely quiet” on Monday because schools were still open and up to 75 per cent of students are going in, but spot checks were in place while fines may be issued for those who breach lockdown rules. “The health ministry said country’s health care system was on the brink and that lockdown was necessary to keep the system from collapsing,” she added.

Restrictions aimed at tackling the country’s fourth wave of Covid-19 resulted in a sharp rise in the number of people flocking to vaccination centres for their first jab in the past few weeks. Austria has one of the lowest rates of vaccination in Western Europe with roughly 66 per cent of the population being fully jabbed.

The lockdown was initially only for the unvaccinated, but the government announced on Friday it would extend it to the vaccinated too amid a record number of cases.

According to the chief of operations at the city’s biggest centre, Bernhard Schwarz, there has been a “massive increase” in the uptake of jabs since the first mention of a new lockdown, with 15 to 20 per cent of cases being first time shots.

“It started with the lockdown for the unvaccinated so we can really tell an increase since more measures are being taken [against the unvaccinated].”

He said disinformation about vaccines, such as the whether they could affect fertility, has stirred fear in people which is “really hard to address”.

“It’s our job and the job of politicians to address these fears,” Mr Schwarz said.

Peter Klimek, advisor to the Austrian Health Ministry said restrictions were necessary as he told CNN: “What we believe is that with this mandatory vaccination and if it’s executed properly then at least we should be able to avoid triage situations in hospital.”