DENVER -- A lightning strike stripped the bark from a tree in Del Mar Park in Aurora and knocked over six children who were taking cover from a storm, but did not seriously injure them.

The children, who ranged in age from 8 to 15, were playing in the park when a storm rolled in. They huddled under a tree, but lightning apparently struck the tree. The impact knocked all six children over.

"All of a sudden we just heard a loud noise and we all fell to the ground," said one of the survivors, Michelle Garcia. "I felt tingling in my legs and then I got a big headache."

Garcia's young brother and sister also fell to the ground, but it was one of their friends, a teenage boy, who appeared to have been hurt most.

"The kid was lying on the ground and his eyes were rolling back in his head," said Babette Tyson, who watched it all happen.

"I just wanted to make sure my friend was OK because he was just laying there on the grass," said Garcia.

Garcia and her siblings were rushed to Aurora Medical Center. Three others were treated at Children's Hospital. Firefighters said none of them had serious injuries. The Garcias were quickly released. They returned to the park to take away a souvenir -- a strip of bark from the tree that Michelle Garcia said saved lives.

"I'm just really glad that everyone was OK," she said. "If the tree wasn't there, it would have hit one of us."

According to weather experts, trees are among the least safe places you can be during a lightning storm. The safest place is in a ditch or somewhere low to the ground.