A father of two children whose bodies were found in the River Nile north of Cairo last week has confessed to tossing them in the river because they were being "bothersome."

The 33-year-old man had first claimed that his two kids, aged three and five, disappeared while he was busy chatting with someone at a park during the Muslim festival of Eid Al-Adha last week, according to the interior ministry.

Police later arrested the father, prompted by his suspicious behavior and that he fled during the children's funeral, the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. He later confessed during questioning that he had thrown the kids into the river.

A six-minute video clip released by the ministry shows the father confessing that after visiting a park on Tuesday, he drove his kids to a bridge in Faraskur city in Damietta governorate, where he tossed them over the edge because they were a source of trouble. He said that he had been using drugs that day.

"They were causing a disturbance and I no longer had energy for them… I felt they were a source of bother for me," the father said in the confession video.

The interior ministry said that the man has a "disturbed personality" and is a drug abuser. He said he was pushed to commit the crime because of his poor relationship with his wife and her repeated accusations that he had failed to take responsibility for his children.