A British man on the run over alleged drugs offences was arrested after fleeing 90 miles on a jet ski from Australia to Papua New Guinea armed with a crossbow.

Border police were tipped off that a man "carrying additional fuel and supplies" and carrying the weapon had been seen launching the jet ski from the Cape York peninsula, in the northernmost part of Queensland, on Monday.

Officers from three different police agencies gave chase in an Australian Border Force vessel, pursuing the jet ski across the Torres Strait.

After making it through the chain of islands the 57-year-old - named locally as David James Jackson - was eventually arrested on mudflats just a few miles short of his apparent destination on the Papua New Guinea mainland.

Mr Jackson, who is wanted for alleged drugs offences in Western Australia, reportedly left a handwritten note in a Subaru Outback which abandoned on the beach at the tip of Cape York before setting off, stating: “If I’m not back by Wednesday, I’m not dead. But I’m not coming back.”

Officers only caught up with him on the eastern side of Saibai Island when he stopped to buy more fuel after managing managed to travel nearly 90 miles across the Torres Strait.