Man crushed to death by thousands of cheese wheels

Firefighters spent 12 hours removing wheels of cheese before they found the 74-year-old

Italian man dies after being crushed by thousands of wheels of Gran Padano cheese (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

An Italian man has been crushed to death by thousands of wheels of cheese.

It took Italian firefighters around 12 hours to find 74-year-old Giacomo Chiapparini, who was buried beneath countless wheels of parmesan-style hard cheese.

The incident occurred when a shelf broke in Mr Chiapparini’s warehouse as he was checking on the ripening wheels in the northern Lombardy region on Sunday.

Thousands of 40kg cheese wheels barreling on top of him as a result.

Firefighter Antonio Dusi told AFP the rescuers “had to move the cheeses and the shelves by hand” before finally finding the 74-year-old.

Located in the small town of Romano di Lombardia, the warehouse contained 25,000 wheels of grana padano.

The hard cheese is made from unpasteurised cows’ milk in copper cauldrons.

It goes through a specific and meticulous process of heating, breaking the curd and resting before it is extracted and molded into the iconic wheel. After more rigorous treatments such as salting, the cheese is left to dry and age for a minimum of nine months.