Gold Coast tourist slashed with angle grinder while fighting off would-be e-bike thief at Adelaide caravan park

A tourist has been slashed across the forehead with an angle grinder when he confronted a thief trying to steal his e-bike from an inner-eastern Adelaide caravan park.

Steve Hoy, 60, was asleep in his motorhome in Hackney when he was jolted awake by grinding noises shortly before 5am.

The retiree from the Gold Coast, who is travelling around Australia, raced outside and discovered a hooded man allegedly trying to cut through the equipment securing his e-bike to the motorhome.

A violent struggle between Hoy and the man spilled onto the road outside the caravan park.

“We just ended up on the road just out the front here and he hit me with the grinder,” Hoy said.

The alleged thief turned the power tool on Hoy, slashing his forehead and knocking him to the ground.

“He just came in with a big haymaker, a big round one, and just went straight in and got me. I just went straight down.”

Despite suffering a head wound, Hoy chased after the man as he rode away on the stolen bike.

“I just started racing after him and I grabbed onto the back of the bike and we went down and (we) had another altercation,” he said.

The suspected thief eventually fled, abandoning a trail of belongings behind.

“He took off, left all his stuff all over the road. There were drugs, a wallet — had heaps of cash in it.”

“(It was) pretty full-on,” caravan park resident Tom Block told 7NEWS.

“I wouldn’t have expected someone to do that. It could have ended up worse than it was.

Police seized the e-bike and items allegedly left behind by the suspect for forensic testing.