At least 84 people were killed and hundreds injured as a 31-year old Franco-Tunisian man drove a truck at full speed through the crowd who had gathered to watch the Bastille Day fireworks display over the Nice seafront.
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However there has been no clear link established to the Islamic State group which claimed the attack, saying Bouhlel was one of its “soldiers”.
Phone records examined by authorities showed some of the six being questioned were in contact with Lahouaiej Bouhlel in the days leading up to the attack, the sources said.
Speaking ahead of the nationwide minute-of-silence on Monday, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve accused the government’s opponents of breaking ranks in an unseemly way.
Lahouaiej Bouhlel used an automatic pistol to shoot at the police officers who tried to stop him on the promenade; several fake weapons were also found in his truck after he was fatally shot.
The state of emergency now in place across France was implemented on the evening of November 13, last year, when “Islamic State”-affiliated militants launched several attacks across the capital Paris, leaving 130 people dead”.
His text message – to a man who has since been arrested – backs up the theory the attack was the work of an ISIS cell.
“Resignation!” “Murderers” was shouted by the crowds before and after the ceremony.
Eighteen people, including one child, are still fighting for their lives in hospital, the health ministry said.
His comments were all the more galling as the attack had taken place on Bastille Day, a major national holiday in France marking the launch of the French Revolution which paved the way for the creation of France’s modern secular state.
But the Socialists have also said they will draw the line at some of the opposition’s more controversial demands.
France held a national moment of silence Monday for the attack’s victims.
While they all said he had always been indifferent to religion, some described a recent and very rapid conversion to radical Islam.
It has been once again extended by three months following a terrorist attack in France’s southern city of Nice on July 14.
Many of those who knew him said Bouhlel was a hard person, describing him variously as aloof and hostile, even violent at times.
But Molins said there was no evidence the delivery driver had sworn allegiance to the jihadist group, which claimed responsibility for his attack.
“Everything that should have been done over the past 18 months was not done”, Mr Sarkozy added.
Valls said Bouhlel had been radicalized quickly before carrying out the attack.
The reaction came amid anger at the failure to provide better security at the Bastille Day event and growing fears that France is becoming powerless to prevent further atrocities.
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In the days after the attack, other members of Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel’s family portrayed him as a victim of mental illness, while neighbors recalled him as a loner prone to alcohol and the abuse of his wife, from whom he was later divorced and whose identity has not been made public.
