The raid was carried out as part of the investigation into a 22-year-old man believed to have received text messages from Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel on the night of the attack, discussing the supply of weapons.
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President Francois Hollande had planned to lift the emergency measures, but he changed tack following the attack in Nice which left 84 people dead.
The government is scrambling to find new ways to assure a jittery population after its third major attack in 18 months saw a truck driver plough into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing 84 people.
The probe, which involves more than 400 investigators, confirmed the attack was premediated, the prosecutor said. Another 17 people were killed in January 2015 in attacks that began with the shooting of journalists working for Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly that had published cartoons mocking Islam.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls, jeered by crowds at a remembrance ceremony last Monday and criticised by politicial opponents over the attack, called for national unity when presenting the emergency rule bill overnight. Paris prosecutor Francois Molins has said that the suspect’s computer was filled with violent photos of Al-Qaeda and IS fighters, but no evidence of operational links.
A recent commission of inquiry found that the state of emergency was only having a “limited impact” on improving security.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve’s clarification comes after a newspaper accused French authorities of lacking transparency in their handling of the massacre.
Earlier, the French newspaper Liberation said Cazeneuve lied about the whereabouts of the national police officers and cars in Nice that day and accused authorities of lacking transparency.
Hollande said “there’s no room for polemics, there’s only room for transparency”.
Cazeneuve accused the paper of conspiracy theories and said several “heroic” national police – who killed the attacker after an exchange of fire – were stationed further down the promenade.
The inquiry by an inspectorate widely known in France as the “police of the police” will look into the nitty-gritty detail of how the area was cordoned off for the traditional Bastille Day festivities on July 14 and how the area was patrolled.
The fact the president was open to the six-month extension was seen as a concession to opposition Republicans who have demanded that the state of emergency be maintained through to the end of the year.
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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”.
