Italian man crushed to death under falling cheese wheels

Giacomo Chiapparini, 74, from Romano di Lombardia, was buried when a shelf broke in his warehouse

An Italian man has been crushed to death under thousands of vast wheels of a parmesan-style hard cheese, which weigh about 40kg each, firefighters said on Monday.

Giacomo Chiapparini, 74, was buried under the cheeses when a shelf broke in his warehouse in the northern Lombardy region on Sunday, creating a domino effect which brought down thousands of wheels, firefighter Antonio Dusi from Bergamo told AFP.