After two days of police chases, shootouts and hostage taking; of uncertainty and fear there is considerable relief that the three key terrorists are no longer at large.

But relief is only part of the story. The immediate trauma appears to be over - but the Charlie Hebdo shootings and subsequent events have raised huge questions that will reverberate through French society for some time to come.

While the gunmen were still at large, the preoccupation for the public as well as politicians and security services was on tracking them down.

With their deaths, the underlying anxiety prompted by what has happened may be felt throughout society more profoundly.

At the Place de la Republique people have gathered each evening since the Charlie Hebdo killings - parts of the square including the central statue of Marianne have become unofficial shrines to the dead.

People sat around pools of candlelight, many silent and deep in thought. Others told me that they remained shocked and worried about what had happened.

"I believe it is really important for us to be here and share this moment. It has never happened for us in France and we have to face it together," one man said.

And a woman added: "It was a huge, huge event for us. We have been attacked at our heart."

In the coming days the police and security services in particular will need to explain how it is that men they apparently knew all about managed to catch them completely off guard.

Politicians will need to show themselves ready to rise to the scale of the challenge, something that is far from guaranteed in a polarised political culture dominated by a hugely unpopular President, and a National Front leader reviled by many, but increasingly influential.

But the most profound question for the crowds at the Place de la Republique and the question that will hang over the huge march of solidarity that is planned for Sunday is why?

Why is it that individuals born and raised - living in France - nevertheless despise the values that most people hold most dear?

Meanwhile, France is keeping its highest possible security level in the greater Paris area.

Speaking through an interpreter, the Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has been updating reporters after an emergency meeting with President Francois Hollande.