Seventeen members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood have been arrested on charges of sabotaging sewage systems and other acts of vandalism in Alexandria, the Egyptian interior ministry announced late Saturday.

In a video statement issued by the ministry, the suspects are shown confessing that they are part of the Brotherhood and that they had been coordinating and committing acts of vandalism in Egypt's second-biggest city.

The suspects stated that some of the acts included blocking the sewage pipes by mixing cement inside many of the city’s pipelines.

"The suspects destroyed power transformers in order to incite anger among citizens," the statement added.

The suspects are also accused of being behind several minor explosions that struck Alexandria in the past few days.

Alexandria has been facing a rain storm over the past week which has flooded streets and homes as the city’s drainage system and overall infrastructure has not been upgraded in years. The storm also caused power outages in some districts.

The storm has left dozens dead in the city and many more injured, and has resulted in the resignation of the city's governor Hani El-Messeiri.

Before his resignation earlier in October, the governor, in a bid to alert Cairo to looming dangers that could threaten Alexandria, said he had told cabinet that the city has not undergone any infrastructure development projects for 15 years.

Alexandria witnesses flash floods almost on a yearly basis. Last year, floods wreaked havoc on the city for several days.

Meanwhile, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi visited the city on Sunday and ordered the allocation of LE1 billion from the Tahya Misr fund for the development of the sewage system in Alexandria and Beheira.

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