A group of church youth group members were left injured after lightning struck near them while hiking in Utah.
A total of 50 teens from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints experienced the frightening moment on Thursday near the Salina Canyon in Sevier County.
Shocking video showed the exact moment the lightning bolt came down on the group, as one teen, Jacob Johnson, 18, was seen lying on the muddy ground after being hit.
Johnson and six others were taken to the hospital, according to police. He was released a few hours later with a minor concussion. On Friday, the Sevier County Sheriff’s Office said all but one teen was released from the hospital.
'I remember it felt like a baseball bat had just been swung into my head. And I flew forward, and I blacked out,' Johnson told East Idaho News.
Seven teens were injured after being struck by lightning on Thursday near the Salina Canyon in Sevier County. Johnson is seen lying on the muddy ground after being hit
The sheriff's office said two of the injured teens 'were flown via medical helicopter to Primary Children’s Hospital in Lehi,' while the other five were taken to Gunnison Hospital and Sevier Valley Hospital
Video of the terrifying moment starts with a girl and her friends giggling as they walk on the muddy ground.
The girl recording the terrifying moment was saying hi to her mother and capturing memories just before lightning struck
'Hi, mom! So we're taking a walk, look at my shoes: soaked,' the girl says.
She then turns the camera to her friends next to her as they wave to the camera and say hi.
In that moment, a huge rumble of thunder takes over, along with a large flash of bright lightning.
The girl's phone tumbles as rain is seen falling from the dark clouds above.
'I just got hit, I just got hit, oh my gosh,' one girl says.
The group, wrapped in garbage bags to avoid getting soaked from the rain, start to look around at each other in complete panic.
A blue backpack lies on the ground as the girls recording starts to cry and says: 'Mom we just go hit, mom I just got hit!'
A total of 50 teens from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints experienced the frightening moment
Jacob Johnson, 18, was seen lying on the muddy ground after being hit. He was released from the hospital a few hours later with a minor concussion
The camera then turns to Johnson laying on the ground, covered in a black trash bag, with his eyes closed.
A boy says: 'And I just got hit, I'm OK, but he's not doing too well.'
The camera moves and shows other teens along the muddy trail as the boy continues: 'A couple other people got hit.'
A group of girls are seen crying in terror as they all try to comprehend what just happened.
They start to hug an tell each other to breathe, as one girl says: 'You're OK, you're OK.'
Another member then tells everyone to keep walking as the video ends.
Johnson recalled what he thought just moments before he was slammed to the ground by lightning.
'We started to hike, and it started to come down pretty hard. I remember thinking like, "This is kind of a little scary,"' he said.
While on the ground, he recalled thoughts and questions racing through his mind.
'I was thinking, you know, "Is this it? You know, did I just die?" I was thinking about all the things that I still wanted to accomplish in my life,' Johnson said.
'And I just had an overwhelming sense of love from my Heavenly Father because I knew I had more to do in this world and from that moment on, I knew I was going to be okay.'
Another member, Peyton Bailey, 14, said the powerful strike immediately knocked her to the ground
The sheriff's office said two of the injured teens 'were flown via medical helicopter to Primary Children’s Hospital in Lehi,' while the other five were taken to Gunnison Hospital and Sevier Valley Hospital.
Another member, Peyton Bailey, 14, told Fox 13 Now, the powerful strike immediately knocked her to the ground.
'It was so bright and the sound was so loud. There was ringing in my ears and it felt like a bunch of weight had hit my head and pushed me backwards,' Bailey recalled.
She said that prior to the hike, the teens and their parents were warned about the severe weather ahead.
'And we all chose to go like this was no one's fault.
'We had medical vehicles riding alongside us as we were walking and I think that's how we got kids out so quickly is because we had those medical vehicles ready,' she said.
Bailey said she is just thankful nobody was killed or severely injured in the near-death experience.
