For Istanbul's 16 million inhabitants, the earthquake that struck southern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6, killing over 45,000 people, has revived fears. The city is located near the North Anatolian fault, and experts say the high risk of destructive seismological activity "has not increased". "We could have said that the risk of an earthquake in Istanbul increased after the 1999 quake" says Professor Dogan Kalafat, director of the Kandilli Observatory’s Regional Earthquake-Tsunami Monitoring Center in Istanbul, "but we cannot say it for an earthquake on the East Anatolian Fault". During an interview with AFP, Professor Kalafat explains that, even though the threat to Istanbul has not grown, the city has "a lot of old buildings built before 1999... which will present a structural hazard, so unfortunately I cannot say that we are ready." IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES