Man rescued after becoming buried under Cheddar and Red Leicester cheese for eight hours

The extraction was described as similar to 'crawling over rubble, but rubble made of giant blocks of cheese'

Three fire services were involved in the rescue effort ( Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

A warehouse worker has survived eight hours buried underneath tons of cheese after a series of 18 feet high shelves fell on top of his forklift truck.

The shelves were holding 20kg of blocks of the Cheddar and Red Leicester cheese when they knocked into each other in a "domino effect".

Tomasz Wisniewski was feared dead after the incident took place at the food distribution centre in Hinstock, Shropshire.

Mr Wisniewski was safely removed from the wreckage and taken to Princess Royal Hospital as a precaution.

Specialist urban search and rescue teams from the West Midlands, Merseyside, and Leicestershire, including sniffer dogs, were involved in trying to pull the Polish worker from the wreckage inside the 60m building.

Deputy Chief Fire Officer Rod Hammerton described the extraction as like “crawling over rubble, but rubble made of giant blocks of cheese”, The Mirror reports.

A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: "Astonishingly, after so long trapped under the contents of the warehouse, the worker was able to walk out of the warehouse.

"He was then assessed by the paramedics from the hazardous area response team and was subsequently taken to Princess Royal Hospital (in Telford) as a precaution, but he appears uninjured."

His colleague Debbie Belcher told the BBC: "The sense of relief is just immense. We couldn't have hoped for a better outcome."