Man dies after being crushed by thousands of cheese wheels

A man has died after being crushed by thousands of cheese wheels in an Italian factory.

Giacomo Chiapparini, 75, was the owner of his own cheese company based in the northern town of Romano di Lombardia near Bergamo.

He was working late on Sunday night (August 6) when a shelf containing wheels of cheese fell on him.

The factory produces wheels of Grana Padano, a cheese similar to Parmigiano Reggiano, and each wheel weighs around 40 kilos.

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According to the Daily Mail, the broken shelf caused around 15,000 wheels to fall and the man was crushed.

The incident is believed to have taken place at around 9pm when workers heard loud banging and called the emergency services.

A total of 118 people including firefighters and police officers worked overnight to try and recover the body, which was eventually found at around 9am on Monday.

Bortolo Ghislotti is the president of the local agricultural district. He spoke to Italian news outlet Il Giorno that the accident could have been caused if the machine cleaning the cheese malfunctioned.

“The family, his wife Angela and two children, cannot understand what happened,” Ghislotti told the publication.

“But now we are looking for some colleague willing to keep all the wheels… which otherwise would have to be thrown out.”

If the cheese which fell during the incident had to be thrown out, Ghislotti estimated that the economic damage could be around $7.7 million.

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