An Italian man has been crushed to death after thousands of giant wheels of cheese fell on top of him in a warehouse.

Giacomo Chiapparini was checking on a robot that automatically rotates the cheeses to help them mature when a shelf suddenly collapsed.

It caused a domino effect, with other shelves being knocked over and thousands of the heavy cheeses tumbling to the ground, burying the 74-year-old owner.

He was working alone and no one saw the freak accident or was able to help him.

The warehouse, in the small town of Romano di Lombardia near Bergamo, contained about 25,000 wheels of Grana Padano, a hard cheese that resembles Parmigiano Reggiano.