The Bastille Day killer drove his rented lorry on 12 reconnaissance trips along the Nice seafront without being turned back despite a local ban on heavy goods vehicles, it emerged on Saturday.

Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel repeatedly drove the 19-tonne lorry up and down the Promenade des Anglais in the three days before the massacre, although lorries of more than 3.5 tonnes are banned from the centre of Nice except in special cases for deliveries or removals.

The revelation by French media stoked public outrage over allegations that the government was trying to cover up security failings after Bouhlel mowed down holiday crowds on the iconic promenade, killing 84 people on July 14.

CCTV footage reportedly shows him driving in bizarre, apparently random patterns, sometimes stopping and switching on the hazard warning lights. “He can been seen in the images driving along the Promenade des Anglais with his lorry 12 times between July 11 and 14,” a source close to the investigation said.

Officials in Nice refused to obey a police order to delete 24 hours of surveillance images showing the atrocity as the government came under fire over security on the night of the attack.

Heavily-armed national police officers who might have been able to stop the lorry by shooting its tyres were ordered off the seafront after a military parade in the afternoon. Four police vans that had been used to block off the Promenade were removed.