An elderly man was killed when a huge wall of cheese fell and crushed him.

Tragedy struck the small town of Romano di Lombardia, Italy on Sunday evening, as an elderly Italian man was tragically crushed to death by an enormous wall of falling cheese. Giacomo Chiapparini, 75, had been checking on the ripening wheels of Grana Padano cheese in his warehouse when a 10-metre-high shelf collapsed and sent thousands of wheels of cheese tumbling down upon him.

Rescuers had to painstakingly move the cheese and shelves by hand in a 12-hour operation, according to Antonio Dusi, a firefighter at the scene. Chiapparini ran a dairy farm with his family in Lombardy, producing an estimated 50 wheels of Grana Padano cheese per day. The family-run business had been in operation since 2006 and exported throughout Italy, where it also operated a butcher shop.

Authorities believe the tragedy occurred when a machine used to rotate the wheels of cheese, a process which matures the dairy product, moved and caused the shelf to collapse. One neighbour described hearing a loud thunderous sound shortly before the firefighters arrived.

Milena, another neighbour, spoke highly of the hardworking Giacomo Chiapparini. "He was a hard worker, he built himself from scratch and already 20 years ago he had to suffer the tragedy of losing a child. From nothing he had built a large family-run business," Milena said. "If there was a problem, together with his family she was always very supportive, he gave work to many people, he was a very generous person.”

Bortolo Ghislotti, president of the local agricultural district, spoke of the Chiapparini family’s race against time to save the remaining wheels of cheese and move them to a climate-controlled warehouse before they go to waste. “The family, his wife Angela and their two children cannot understand what happened,” Ghislotti said. “But now we are looking for some colleagues willing to keep all the forms, more than a thousand, which otherwise would have to be thrown away.”

The unfortunate accident has left a small Italian town in shock. The loss of Giacomo Chiapparini is a tragedy that will not soon be forgotten.

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