A 74-year-old Italian man died after being crushed by thousands of his cheese wheels.
Giacomo Chiapparini, the owner of a cheese manufacturing company, was buried under the cheeses after a shelf broke in his warehouse in northern Lombardy on Sunday, causing a domino effect that brought down thousands of wheels.
Officials stated that they had to move the cheeses and shelves by hand and that it took almost 12 hours to find Mr. Chiapparini’s body.
His relatives, who live and work in the cheese factory, identified him. On Thursday, he will be laid to rest.
The warehouse, in the small town of Romano di Lombardia near Bergamo, had 25,000 wheels of Grana Padano, a hard cheese that resembles Parmesan and is particularly popular in Italy.
Mr. Chiapparini had been inspecting the ripening wheels, which were placed on metal shelves, the tallest of which were 10 metres (33 feet).
The plant produces around 15,000 wheels each year, or about 50 Grana Padano wheels per day.
Although a mechanical failure or material wear and tear are likely to be the cause of the catastrophe, it is unknown how the initial metal shelf collapsed.
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