A drunk Australian tourist was arrested after hijacking a minibus and going on a joyride in Hong Kong's Happy Valley, before leaving it smashed in the street.

The two-hour caper started early Sunday morning after the man, reportedly named Patrick, allegedly wrenched open the door of the minibus and attacked the driver, strangling him with his bare hands and forcing him from the vehicle. He then allegedly stole the minibus, which had been parked at the rear of a queue of buses in the shopping district of Causeway Bay.

"I told him to take the minibus parked in front but he did not listen and kept shouting at me in English and repeating the F-word," the 64-year-old driver told the South China Morning Post.

The driver said he did not fight the man, who he described as being 183-centimetres tall, "strong-looking", stinking of alcohol and bleeding from his left hand. He watched him drive away in the minibus about 5am before calling police.